Someone like Me
by Mr. Me2
Summary: Goku makes a wish to meet someone like him. Begins just after the Red Ribbon Army. Watch how a single wish can shift many future events. Mainly action/story based. Rated T for violence. AU, obviously. Put on Hiatus, for now.
1. Ch 1 A Wish

Author Note: Lacking a Beta-reader, I decided to publish this anyway. Please enjoy. (Or not, whatever floats your boat.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the clothes on my back.

Update note:

Version 1.2

I've revised these chapters and improved it at many places.

I cant believe how terrible it is compared to the post-beta-read chapters. Just more proof of how much I need it.

Ch 1 A Wish

It was a few weeks after the mysterious destruction of the Red Ribbon Army.

A young boy was running along the mountain road. It was a most exceptional boy. He was wearing a yellow shirt underneath a blue gi, and had spiky black hair. His most distinguishing trait would be the soft, brown, monkey-like tail he waved behind him.

After a sizable lunch, which would feed a normal human for a week, the boy laid down on his back. As he watched the clouds pass over slowly, he let his mind go over the events of the past few weeks. So much had happened. He had almost won the World Martial Arts Tournament, followed by his battle with the RR Army. Then he met with his deceased grandfather Gohan, gathered the dragon balls and reunited a young boy with his father.

 _'Upa and his father.'_ In his minds eye he could see the happy boy sitting on his father's shoulder.

 _'They must be so happy together.'_ He grinned to himself, as his thoughts went to his friends.

 _'I wonder how Yamcha and Krillin are doing. They must be training hard with Master Roshi. I hope they are getting lots stronger for the next tournament. And Bulma, Puar and Oolong are with them too.'_

Suddenly he felt alone. Shaking his head he tried to forget it as he stood up. Instead, he turned his mind to his first tournament.

 _'Some of those guys were really strong, like Jacky Chan. And I can't believe everyone stared at me… just because I have a tail?'_ He paused for a moment, looking at said appendage. ' _Wait, Krillin didn't have a tail. He was even surprised when he found out I did. And neither did Bulma, or Yamcha, or anyone else I've met.'_ He looked to the sky again.

 _'Maybe if I travel the world, I'll find someone else with a tail. I can't be the only one right? But where? No one I know knew anything about other people with tails.'_ It was then that his eye fell on a white stone in his backpack. A perfect sphere, and completely smooth. The four star dragon ball. He picked it up.

 _'I know, I could ask the dragon.' He scratched his head. 'Wait, I won't be able to summon him for another year. Oh well,'_ As he slung his bag over his shoulder, put his hands behind his head and started walking again, ' _I'll just have to wait then. Hey, maybe I'll meet someone before that, then I don't have to wish for it at all.'_

Now, over a year had passed, and little Goku had not yet found anyone else with a tail. Thus, he went over to West City to ask Bulma if he could borrow her radar. Gathering the dragon balls again was rather easy. The only one that gave him trouble was the one held by a fat man, who would not part with it. Eventually, after a few days of chasing, Goku managed to trade the ball for a mountain load of food.

Goku stood at the edge of a forest, with a few trees standing around him.

 _'This is it.'_ He thought. He looked at the seven orange balls, and spoke up.

"Eternal dragon, I have a wish!"

The sky darkened, and lighting flashed. Then the balls glowed brightly as a yellow beam shot up into the clouds. The beam bended and twisted around, and the light wore off, revealing a large, green serpent floating in the sky.

"You have awakened me. I shall grant you a single wish within my power." The low and heavy voice boomed.

"Dragon, I wish could meet someone like me!" Goku shouted up.

"As you wish." The dragons red eyes lighted up, and a yellow light formed next to the dragon balls. The light took the shape of a human. Then it settled down, and the orange orbs were lifted up into the sky.

"Your wish has been granted." The dragon said, before disappearing, and the dragon balls shot high up the sky. Goku, not letting his eyes off the four star ball, jumped up high. And, as the balls scattered, he caught it before it could fly off. The sky turned back to normal, and Goku landed with the ball in his hand.

It was now that he turned his attention to the shape that appeared out of the yellow light. It was a boy, hardly any taller than Goku was. He laid down unto his back, with his eyes shut. He had spiky black hair, and was wearing some strange armour. He also had a red glass-like thing on the left side of his face. Goku was disappointed when he looked behind the boy, but saw no tail sticking out. Then he noticed the brown, furry belt the strange boy had wrapped around his waist.

Goku crept closer silently, though not sure why, and prodded the new boy. He did not react. Yet a regular moving off his chest betrayed his breathing. Our lovable hero straightened his back.

' _He's sleeping. I wonder if its night where he's from. I know, I'll go get some breakfast for when he wakes up.'_ He ran off towards the forest, but slowed down after a few steps.

 _'Wait, if he's like me, then he should eat as much as I do.' G_ rinning and running again. 'I better go get a lot.'

But when Goku returned with as much meat and fruit as he could carry, the new boy was no longer there. Dropping the food, he ran towards the spot where he left him. The scent was still there, and it was fresh. He could not have missed him for more than a few minutes. Yet the scent was not around the spot where the boy had lain, as if he shot straight up into the sky.

A gently wind blew from the forest behind him; it carried the strange boy's scent. Goku perked up, and turned towards the direction of the source. He eyed the trees at the edge, until his eye caught a tiny speck of bright blue. He was about to open his mouth when the boy literally flew out of the trees, covered the distance in the blink of an eye, and kicked him in the head. Goku was flown backwards, until he landed headfirst against a tree. He was stunned for a bit. Then he shot up and his eyes immediately found his attacker. He was at the pile of food Goku had brought, and was eating so fast his hand appeared to be blurs.

"Wow, you must be hungry." Goku chuckled. At the sound of his voice, the boy whipped around.

"You're strong." Goku continued, as he walked towards him, grinning. "I've never seen anyone move that fast." The boy edged backward slightly, and had a weary look in his eyes.

"You're stronger then I thought, kid." He replied in a high pitched voice. "But you should have pretended to be dead." He tried to sound intimidating.

"Why should I do that?" Goku asked confused. He tilted his head slightly.

"Because I'm going to kill you?" The boy retorted, also confused. This kid calmness worked on his nerves.

"Why would you do that? I haven't done anything to you." Goku answered, the grin now gone. "Besides, I brought you food." He then added, as if that settled matters.

And apparently it did, because the new boy did not answer. Although that might have been because he was too stunned for words. Yet he did not take his eyes off his opponents face.

Goku walked up to him

"Hi, I'm Goku." He said, the grin returning to his face.

"Vegeta." He boy answered, unsure of what to do. "Why would you bring me food?" He asked eventually.

"Well, I thought you would be hungry after you woke up. I always am." Goku said, putting his hands behind his head again. He had forgotten that the new boy kicked him into a tree just a few seconds ago. "And a brought you a lot because I thought you would eat as much as I do."

"Why would you think…" Vegeta started, until his eyes finely left Goku's face, and found his tail. "You, you're, you are… a Saiyan?" He stuttered, now completely confused.

"What's a Saiyan?" Goku asked.

"I'm a Saiyan." Vegeta answered.

"Then I guess I am too, since I'm like you." Goku said smiling, as if that made sense to him.

 _'Ok, so he's an idiot.'_ Vegeta concluded, finely letting down his guard. ' _Kind of like Nappa, but without the big muscles. And the constant annoying questions.'_

"But that doesn't tell me what a Saiyan is." Goku spoke up again.

 _'Scratch that.'_ He continued. _'Dammed, you remind me of Raditz.'_ Then a light went up in the back of his head. "Wait, you're Kakarot."

"But I thought was a Saiyan, whatever that is." Goku replied innocently.

"No, your name is Kakarot." Vegeta said.

"No, my name is Goku. And you still haven't told me what a Saiyan is."

 _'This is going nowhere.'_ Vegeta sighed. ' _This boy is worse than the other two combined. At least they know when to shut up.' Yet the boy caught his interest._ "Where am I?" He asked.

"I asked you first."

"Fine, if you tell me where I am and how I got here, I'll tell you about the Saiyans."

"Ok." Goku replied happily. "I wished you here." He then said, as if that was the most logical thing in the world.

"Wished… me… here?"

"Yes, so what's a Saiyan?"

"You still haven't told me anything."

"Yes I did."

"I meant, how did you 'wish' me here?"

"Oh." Goku scratched his head for a few seconds. "Have you ever heard about the Dragon Balls?" he then asked

"No." Vegeta's short answer came,

"There are seven magical balls, called Dragon Balls" He started. Vegeta huffed at his words, but did not interrupt. He was getting curious. "If you bring all seven balls together, the dragon will come out and grand you any wish."

Vegeta perked up at these words. "Any wish? Then why would you wish to bring me here?"

"I didn't. I just wished to meet someone like me, and the dragon brought you here."

"So, where are these dragon balls?" He asked. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. Yes, he had come unto something interesting indeed.

"After a wish has been made, the balls scatter around the world, and turn to stone for a year. So that's why you're here." Goku concluded. "Are you going to tell me what a Saiyan is? Am I a Saiyan? Are there more of us?"

Vegeta sat down. This was going to take a while.

Somewhere, deep in space, three small pods landed on a distant planet. Landing with a loud thud on the specially designed landing spots, the pods came to a rest. They laid there unmoving, until one of them opened up. A large, bald man stepped out. He was wearing armour, and had a brown furry tail wrapped around his waist. He walked to one of the other pods, and banged on it loudly.

"Oy, Raditz, wake up!"

"I'm up already, dammed!" The answer came. This pod opened up as well, and revealed a younger man. This man looked like he was in his early twenty's, and had black hair, long enough to pass his waist. He too was wearing armour, and had his tail wrapped around his waist. He shot a venomous look towards the other. The bald man shrugged and walked over to the other pod.

"My prince, we have arrived." He said firmly, yet politely. No answer came. The second man walked up to the pod as well, and looked inside. It was empty, safe for the small chip lying on the seat.

"Attention, last chance for applications, I repeat, last chance for applications."

A familiar group was standing before the entry of the World Martial Arts Tournament.

"If he doesn't hurry, he's going to be late." Bulma stated, looking at her watch.

"Don't worry." Yamcha assured her. "He'd never miss this."

"I guess not. But still, couldn't he arrive a little earlier?"

They waited for a bit.

"One minute before closing. I repeat, one minute before closing." The announcement came.

"Times up, he's going to be late." Oolong said.

"Puar, turn into Goku and register for him." Yamcha said to his little friend.

"And then what?" Roshi intervened. "Will you have Puar fight as well if Goku doesn't show up?"

"Don't say that!" Bulma said.

"But if he's late, he can't enter." Krillin said panicked.

"The registry is now closing." The announcer said.

They watched as the registration was closed and cleaned.

Yet Goku had not shown up.

Thanks for reading. Please tell me if you enjoyed it. And if not, tell me anyway.

Chapter two will be up in a Jiffy.

Update: I revied the chapter, updating it a little.

The most noticeable change is near the end.

Aperandly, Raditz was 'whoring' his armour. I don't even want to know.

How did I miss that?


	2. Ch 2 Demon King I

Author Note: Chapter two, as promised. Careful though, things get a bit more violent in the following chapters.

Update note: not many changes, just basic grammar, and better descriptions.

Ch 2 Demon King I

"And the quarter-finals are; The first are Tien vs. Yamcha, Followed by the Man-Wolf against Jackie Chun, after then we have Krillin facing Chiaotzu, and finely Pamput facing King Chappa."

"I can't believe Goku hasn't shown up at all." Bulma sighed to a blue, floating cat. "He didn't even come to cheer on the rest. I mean, that isn't like him."

"Maybe he just lost track of time." Puar answered. "Or maybe he's busy?"

"Busy with what? Taking out another army?" Oolong said grinning. "He'll be fine, wherever he is."

"Still, I was looking forward to seeing him again."

The tournament went on.

Yamcha fought with Tien. It was a fast paced match, but eventually Tien threw Yamcha on the ground and, before the judge could declare a victor, he broke his opponent's leg.

Man-Wolf had a vicious battle with Jackie. At least, in his mind. Jackie simply danced around his opponent every move, until throwing a bone outside of the ring, which Man-Wolf grabbed, forfeiting the match.

Then Krillin fought against Chiaotzu. It was a close fight, but Krillin scraped out a win nonetheless.

Pamput and King Chappa had the fastest match, with Chappa grabbing and throwing his opponent out of the ring at the very start.

In the first semi-final Tien fought with Jackie Chun, but after a stunning display, Jackie forfeited the match, stating he could not defeat the younger fighter.

Then Krillin fought with Chappa. After dodging a few punches, Krillin landed a kick himself, knocking Chappa out.

Then, in the final match, Tien fought with Krillin, and the audience lost sight of the fighters more than once. Tien's teacher, master Shen, ordered Chiaotzu to paralyze Krillin. Tien noticed after a few moments what is going on and telepathically told him off. Master Shen said victory is worth anything, but Tien stated he could win on his own. He fired a Dodon ray at Krillin, who dodged it by jumping up. But he did not see the second ray coming his way, and it flew straight through his right shoulder, knocking him down.

Tien was declared the winner, but his victory would be short lived.

"World champion. Tch, what a laugh." Master Shen said to his student.

"Yea." Tien agreed. "Winning was almost too easy. We crushed the turtles. And I got some money to boot. I guess I should go back next time, you know, defending my title and all that."

"Poor saps, they'll never get it back again." Both man laughed. Then both of them turned to silence.

"Where is Chiaotzu?" Tien asked.

"Oh, he's in the back, grabbing our stuff." Master Shen answered.

"That was ten minutes ago, it shouldn't take that long just to fly over and get our stuff."

"Fine, let's go check on him." Both men took off towards the main building. "I hope Roshi is still there, so I can rub our victory in his face."

Tien did not reply, instead he mentally called for his friend, but the little guy would not reply. Having arrived at the main building, they noticed the commotion around the entrance.

Simply flying in a window, they landed just behind the backs of a few policemen. One of them noticed and promptly turned around.

"Hey, get out of here, no reporters allowed." He said to them.

"Carl, those don't look like reporters to me." Another said to them.

"Doesn't matter, no one is…" The fist was cut short as Tien impatiently pushed him aside.

"Hey Chiaotzu, are you in he…" His words froze in his throat as his three eyes focused on a small body on the ground. He laid on his back, with dry, unfocused eyes towards the ceiling. His head stuck out at an odd angle. There was no doubt.

"Chiaotzu." Tien whispered hoarsely. The Crane Master walked up behind him.

"They'll pay for this." Tien roared, shooting up, straight through the roof.

"I can't believe that monster really won." Yamcha said, eying his broken leg. He then looked towards the bed next to him, where Krillin was laid. Luckily, the shot trough his shoulder had not hit any vitals. It hardly bled and was expected to heal fast. The others had come to visit the both of them.

"If anything, pity him." Roshi said. "He is just whatever that Crane Hermit made him to be."

"I don't think so." Bulma argued. "He might have been trained by that creep, but he still chose to do so himself."

Any reply anyone could have had was forgotten, as a bright light from outside rapidly flew towards the window. The Turtle Hermit grabbed Bulma and Launch, kicked Oolong away and jumped aside. A yellow ray shot past them, over Yamcha and Krillin, and through the wall on the other end. Then the sound of broken glass rang through the room, as Tien erupted through the window. His eyes were narrowed to slits, and wet trails flowed from them.

"Who was it?" He asked in a low voice. "WHICH ONE!" Not waiting for an answer he pointed his finger towards the Turtle Hermit. The end of the finger began to glow.

"HOLD!" A voice whipped through the air. Outside was Shen, floating. Tien turned to his master.

"WHY? THEY KILLED HIM! WHY SHOULDN'T I!" He cried.

"No, it wasn't them." The crane stated calmly. He waited a second before opening his mouth again. "Get flying, you might still catch him if you are fast."

But Tien did not move. He looked at Master Roshi with resentment. "Are you sure?" he finely asked.

"Yes, now get moving before the real culprit escapes." Not waiting a second longer, the triclops flew at the broken window again. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Roshi looked at his old rival.

"Shen, what is going on? Who was killed?" He asked.

"Chiaotzu." The reply came shortly. Then he reached inside of his robes, pulling out a pamphlet. It had a symbol drawn on it, the symbol of the devil, with a circle around it. Roshi froze the moment he recognized it.

"Is that?" He asked.

"Yes." Another short answer came. Shen turned around. "I have to go calm my pupil, before he wipes out the entire city." He said coldly, before flying off.

After the Crane Hermit left, no one had said a word. Finely Krillin spoke up.

"Master Roshi, what does that mean?" He asked, pointing to the paper left behind.

"That, my young student, is the sign of Demon King Piccolo."

Almost everyone looked at him in confusion, but Bulma and Yamcha gasped.

"Piccolo? Somebody actually admits to having that name?" Launch asked, mockingly.

"I've heard about him." Bulma said. "It was said he had thrown the world into the depths of terror. Ages ago."

"It's true." Master Roshi had "His name may sound funny, but I can assure you, there is nothing humorous about that savage beast. With him came darkness and chaos. His minions of terror wrecked havoc upon the land, destroying all in their path with indiscriminate fury. No one knew what they wanted or why they had come, but they were here, laughing as our world crumbled around them. Piccolo and his army destroyed one city after another with little opposition, except for one temple. It was in this secluded sanctuary that the beasts faced a meagre but determent school of martial artists. As the horde invaded the temple, the young fighters banded together for a final assault. Though hopelessly outnumbered, they were united, and with their combined strength, they offered a formidable defence. Many demons fell that day, and along side them, even more great men. When the battle was over, only two of the warriors were left standing. Myself, and the Crane Hermit. Unfortunately the skirmish had barely made a dent in piccolo's forces. Desperate and out of time, we concentrated our remaining energy into a shield that absorbed the enemy fire. And, with a breath of luck, reflected it back at them. One bright light, that's all I remember, but somehow, it worked, the horde was vanquished. It was finely over, or so we thought. Apparently, the monsters were just an opening act for King Piccolo himself. We barely got a glimpse of his ugly mug before he dismissed us with a wave of his hand. Against his might we were but rag dolls caught in a storm."

Master Roshi took a moment to compose himself. No one made a sound.

"Shen and I were young and in our prime. We gave everything we had and still King Piccolo prevailed. All those lives lost and we didn't lay a scratch on him, he was immune to everyone, even Mutaito."

"Who's Mutaito?" Bulma asked.

"He… was my master…" He paused for a few moments. "My master fought with everything he had, but King Piccolo merely played with him. I don't know why, but he left the three of us alive. Thanks to his strong consecution, and my extraordinary bedside manners, Master Mutaito made a full recovery. However, exterior wounds tend to heal much faster then those we keep inside. For my master, the shame of being dishonoured in front of his students, and the loss of the ones he couldn't protect, was more then he could bear. Unwilling to continue his teaching he left, hoping time would mend what his heart could not."

A long silence

"Its strange picturing you and the Crane Hermit as friends." Yamcha broke the silence. "I had no idea what you went trough."

"Something changed in Shen that day. I could see it in his eyes. It was as if goodness itself had betrayed him. Whether it was our master leaving, or just the alluring power of evil, who knows. He snapped. The man I knew, my friend, was gone. Another casualty."

"Gee, that's too bad." Oolong said. "So what happened after that? How did you defeat king piccolo?"

"I didn't. King piccolo continued his rampage, covering the land in a sea of fire and ash. Unable to defeat him, I fled. Fortunately, I found refuge in the mountains, where I continued my training as best I could. But as the years passed, I lost hope, and began to feel the weight of my solitude. Then, one day, that hope returned. My mentor had spent his time away strengthening his abilities and in search of a means to defeat King Piccolo, which he had finely discovered. My master challenged Piccolo, but the demon mocked him. But, when he fired upon my master, it had no effect. For my master used a special technique, and the Evil Containment Wave successfully trapped King Piccolo. The electronic jar my master had brought with him was specifically designed to contain evil. Piccolo's fate was sealed, but at a heavy price. Having used up all of his energy, Master Mutaito could not endure the effects of the battle. He gave his life to save others, and in doing so, regained his honour. As for piccolo, I obeyed my master's last command and threw the jar into the sea. No one has ever seen or heard of King Piccolo since. Until today."

"Maybe Shen found and opened the jar." Oolong suggested.

"No! Shen more then anyone understands the danger King Piccolo represents."

"Calm yourself." Crane Hermit said to his pupil. It had taken him some time to catch up to the three eyed warrior, and even longer to get him to listen.

"How can I be calm when his murderer is still out here!" Tien snapped back.

"You will have your revenge, I promise you. But first we must act rationally."

"What for? Do you even know who killed him?"

"Remember the stories I told you about my youth?"

"Yes, of course. But what does that have to… Wait, do you mean Piccolo…?"

"Yes Tien, I fear he has."

"But why? Why would he kill Chiaotzu?"

"Maybe that was what he came for. Or, more likely, maybe Chiaotzu was just at the wrong place. When the demon attacked the building, he took a list. A list with names and pictures of all participants. Including Chiaotzu's, and yours as well."

"Why?"

"Think Tien. He was defeated by martial artists the last time. Now he will wipe all of us out before launching an attack."

"So he will come after me then? Good, let him come. I won't be hard to find."

"NO, you are not strong enough, no one is." He saw the look of anger on the face of his student.

"Look, I know you are incredibly strong. But Piccolo, he is something else. You can't fight him with fists alone, we need a weapon."

"The Evil Containment Wave." Tien stated, understanding.

"Yes, Piccolo is too strong to be defeated by normal means."

"Do you know it?"

"Sadly no, I do not, for I did not meet Mutaito after he left. Nor was I there when he used it. But the Turtle was. Maybe he knows something."

"Then lets go back and pay them a visit." Not waiting for a response, Tien flew back from where they came.

Back at the hospital, our friends were pondering on what Master Roshi had told them.

"But if Shen didn't do it, then who did?"

"I don't know." Roshi bowed his head. "Whoever it was, I doubt he knows what he has done."

"I have an idea." Oolong claimed. "Let's just gather the dragon balls and let the dragon take care of Piccolo." Everyone looked at him in shock.

"I doubt it will be that easy, but it is certainly worth a shot." The hermit agreed.

"But what if Piccolo is after the dragon balls too?" Puar asked.

"Oh don't worry, Goku took one of the balls with him." Bulma reassured the floating cat, while rummaging trough her belongings. "I'm sure I put it in here somewhere."

"Put what where?" Yamcha asked her.

"The dragon radar." She answered. "Ah got it."

"Why would you bring that?" Krillin asked. When Bulma shot him a look he added: "Not that I'm complaining. Just wondering."

"I thought Goku would have worn his out already."

"What do you mean?" Yamcha wondered.

"He came and asked me for it about two years ago, said something about wanting to meet someone like him."

"I hope he hasn't." Oolong joked. "The world doesn't have enough food for two Goku's"

They laughed. Not that it was funny, but it did help relieve some of the tense atmosphere which had been building up.

"So Bulma," Krillin asked. "What does the radar say?"

"Well, according to this, someone is collecting them." She answered. "Look, there are two here, and they're moving. And these two," as she pointed to two others "Are moving towards them."

"That might be Piccolo" Roshi voiced all of their thoughts.

"Aw, don't say that." The pig squealed.

"There are three left." Bulma ignored him. "I say we go collect them before anyone else does, then we go see who has the other four. That way, whoever is collecting them can't make a wish without taking ours."

"Good idea." Yamcha complemented her.

"Yea." Krillin agreed. "I'm glad we took you with us."

"Aw, stop it you guys." She feigned shyness, but then went back to serious. "If they are collecting them this fast, they must have some sort of radar as well."

"You mean they have a dragon radar as well?" Krillin panicked.

"It is probably more like the one the Red Ribbon Army used." She said.

"Before Goku took them out anyway." Yamcha said. Then he perked up. "Wait, if Goku has one of the balls, won't we meet him if we go search?"

"Probably." Roshi answered. "But I doubt he is strong enough to take down Piccolo."

"Maybe, but he'll sure help." Yamcha said back.

"It's decided then?" Roshi asked. When everyone nodded he turned towards the window. "Care to join us? We could use all the help we can get."

Everyone turned towards the window in surprise. And their surprise got greater when they saw two men floating there.

"Wait, how long have you two been there?" Yamcha, who was the closest to the window, nearly fell out his bed.

"Long enough." Tien answered. His eyes were still a bit red. "We're in."

A forest passed beneath them. They had left the sea behind some time ago. At a remarkable pace, the jet flew towards the closest dragon ball. But some felt it wasn't fast enough.

"Isn't this thing any faster." The Crane Warrior was slumped against the wall, and had his eyes closed.

"No." Bulma, who was flying the plane, said irritated. "And asking every five minutes isn't going to make it faster as well."

"Don't." Yamcha whispered. "He's bad enough without you pissing him off."

"Yamcha is right," Roshi agreed. "He's a little too calm right now. I fear what might happen if we meet Piccolo."

"Say." Said person spoke up. "You mentioned something about making a wish."

"Yes." Roshi answered. "Whoever collects all seven dragon balls, will be granted one wish."

"And he can wish for anything?"

"It is possible, but we don't know if Piccolo will give us the chance."

Tien grumbled, and shut his eyes again, his thoughts with his lost friend.

"Ok, you lost me." Oolong looked from one to another. "What was that about?"

"Tien wants to wish back his friend." Roshi answered simply.

"Eh, Bulma?" Krillin started.

"No, we're not there yet!"

"We are." He held out the radar. "Look."

She shot a glance at the device. "Ok, the ball should be right below us."

"Hey guys." Yamcha called them. "What is that?"

He pointed down, slightly to the right. It was at the edge of the forest, where it abruptly ended, and went over in a wasteland. Something green was slowly moving over the ground. Green with wings.

"One of Piccolo's minions, I bet." Shen said.

"Wait here." Without waiting for a reply, Tien opened the door and jumped out. Falling towards the demon, he slowed himself down, until he was floating above it. The beast was sleek, had large wings, and wore blue pants, held up by a red sash. It was looking for something. Its head moved left and right, while slowly flying above the rocks. Then it moved sharply to the left. Landing, and reaching down, it pulled up an orange sphere. Tien landed behind him with a thud. The scaled beast turned around.

"So, I can assume you came for this as well?"

"No." Tien answered, a fire burning in his eyes. "I'm here to kill you."

At these words, the lizard opened his mouth and fired a blue energy wave at the fighter. Tien saw it coming and flew up. Then he stopped, and interlocked his hands, holing them before his chest.

"Not bad." The monster grinned. "But not good enough."

It flew up as well, towards Tien. The latter had pulled his hands from each other and formed a diamond between them. Pure concentrated energy glowed up.

"KIKOOOHOOO!" He cried, releasing the devastating attack upon his nemesis.

The poor creature never saw it coming. The technique slammed upon him, and drilled deep into the ground.

Tien relaxed his hands. And looked at the destruction he had caused. The square hole of the attack became visible through the dust. He let himself fall into it, and landed on the bottom. He looked down for a moment on what once was a frightening monster, and reached down to its crushed hand, pulling the ball from its grasp.

"That was for Chiaotzu." He said, and took off.

And that's the end of chapter two. A bit brutal, isn't it?

I could not be bothered to write out the tournament fights, opting for a small description instead. Don't worry, the fights that actually matter will be written out.


	3. Ch 3 Demon King II

Author Note: Still no Beta-reader. Nothing else to say really.

Update Note: Same as the previous one.

Ch 3 Demon King II

"Wake up. We're there."

"About time." At the sound of the other's voice, he stretched himself out. He got of the chamber and stepped beside his long haired companion. They looked out the window.

"So that's her? Our new hiding place?" he asked.

"No." The other answered. "We're out of supplies, we need to restock."

"Don't we have enough food?" he questioned.

"Yes, but we need more than just food." The other turned to him. "This one is under Cooler's control, so we need to keep our heads down while we restock." He nodded. He had long since came to trust in the other's judgement. It had saved them several times since that day.

Two years ago.

The pink tail slammed down unto the floor, shaking the entire room.

"What do you mean, he's GONE!" At the last word, the tail slammed down again.

"Lord Frieza, please. We really don't know." He said from his knees, not daring to look up.

"And he LEFT his CHIP BEHIND?!" The tyrant continued, ignoring the pleas.

"But we only found out after we had landed." His companion tried to reason.

At this moment, the door of the chamber slid open, and revealed a yellow alien, wearing white robes. The alien stepped in, and went to his knee.

"Lord Frieza." He said. "The results are in. According to the records from the ship, it had not been opened until it arrived here. Also, the entire chip was removed perfectly, without any blood staining either it or the ship. It is still completely intact, the anti-removal had not been activated either." Frieza glared at the man.

"ZARBON!" he snapped around to his subject. "GET OUT! FIND HIM!"

"Yes sir." Zarbon ran for his life, he had never seen his sire so angry.

"And get these two to the tech labs! I want the S7 installed in them immediately!"

"No please. We didn't do anything." Nappa begged.

"SILENCE!" Frieza blasted the Saiyan through the stomach. A few minions grabbed him and Raditz, and dragged them out of the room. Raditz did not resist. Nappa couched up some blood. Then everything went black.

When he woke, he found himself floating in some liquid. He opened his eyes, and found himself between complicated looking devices. The tech lab. Fear squeezed his chest, as he reached up to his face. He flinched when his fingers came in contact with cold metal. Then he realized he was in a healing pod. He gasped, remembering what had happened to him, and looked down at his abdomen. A large mark covered them, but the hole was gone.

"Wait a moment." A voice cut trough the silence. Nappa turned his head, and looked at Raditz, who stood outside, glancing in. He reached over to something Nappa couldn't see. After a few moments he walked up the healing pod, and opened it, letting Nappa out. The fist thing he noticed was the stink of burning flesh, a scent all too familiar to him. He looked around, but saw no burn marks.

"We have to hurry; I don't know how much time we have." Raditz said to him, tossing him some armour and a scouter.

"But the chips…?" Nappa began.

"Are not coming with us." Raditz ended, pointing to a nearby table. On it were some complicated looking devices, with many wires running between several components. There were two of them, and they were much larger than the chip they found in Vegeta's ship. The infamous S7.

Nappa looked at the weaker Saiyan with a questioning look.

"I pretended to be unconscious as well. Since you were thrown into the healing pod, they started operation on me, without even bothering with any sedatives. The moment that blasted device left my neck I jumped up, and killed all but two of them. Then I waited for you to become stable. When you did, I made the last two take out your chip, and killed them afterwards. I just finished cleaning up. It should take a while before anyone finds out we're gone."

Nappa put on his armour but not the scouter, pocketing it instead. He followed Raditz out of the room. They ran towards the launch bay in silence. Once there Raditz pointed towards a few older pods. "Those two will do." He said.

Nappa held his left hand behind his back, and charged up an energy blast. "For what?" He questioned. "We won't get far in those things."

"We don't have to." Raditz said, not looking back. He said down by one of the pods, opening it and reaching inside. "They're just for a trip to Amirry. It's close by, and doesn't have a moon."

"And then what?"

"And then we wait, until our pursuers bring us faster ships." Raditz pulled out some circuitry. But behind his back, Nappa held out the blast, aiming at him.

"Don't forget the scouter, that's how we'll be tracked." Raditz continued.

"And since when was that a good thing?" A grin found its way unto Nappa's face.

"After all, Frieza knows we transform under the full moon. Since Amirry doesn't have a moon, and he has men stronger than us in our normal forms, Frieza hopefully won't bother coming himself, and send some henchmen after us. Henchmen with fast ships." Raditz stood up again, looking at his handiwork. "There, that should hold until we arrive."

Nappa walked up to the other Saiyan, his hand still outstretched. Raditz didn't notice, as he walked towards the other pod.

"So your great plan is to trap ourselves on a planet with no moon, with soldiers stronger than us. And they are just going to stand by while we take their ships?" Mockery could be heard in his voice.

"But that's the beauty of it. They will. After all, I don't need a moon."

Nappa froze for a moment, then lowered his arm. ' _And here I was thinking he outlived his usefulness.'_ He watched Raditz work for a few moments. "What makes you so sure Frieza won't come himself?"

"Frieza? Chasing after two monkeys? The idea alone would kill his ego." He stood up. "Ok, we're good to go."

"What did you do?"

"I may have ripped out some useless stuff, like communications. And remote control."

"See you on Amirry." Nappa said, stepping in one of the pods. ' _This might actually work.'_

The next thing he saw were the grey skies of Amirry. Raditz had already came out of his pod.

"Put your scouter on." He said to Nappa. "Dodoria is waiting for us; he passed us an hour ago."

Speaking of the devil, said person just came flying trough the sky, a team of no less then twelve in tow. He landed in front of the Saiyans with a cocky grin plastered on his pink face.

"So, did you really think you could escape with those outdated pods?" He asked mockingly. The men behind him laughed. "There is no escape from Frieza, you maggots."

"We'll see about that." With these words, Nappa launched an energy wave. The men jumped up to avoid it, but two of them were not fast enough, one of them dying instantly. Yet Dodoria stood his ground, and let the wave hit him. Smoke covered the scene, but Nappa had not expected to take out Frieza's lackey with that. He took flight as well, firing several blasts as he went up. The men avoided those, and flew down together, clashing into the large Saiyan. Nappa simply grabbed the foot of the nearest enemy, and slammed him into another. He was used to these kinds of battles, having been outnumbered many times before. Yet he could not avoid the incoming kick from a third, nor the fist a fourth put in his back. They were strong, each of them as strong as he was.

Raditz on the other hand had not taken part yet. This battle was way out of his league anyway. Even in his transformed state, he was hardly stronger than Prince Vegeta in his normal one. But that doesn't mean he did nothing. Not waiting for the smoke to clear, he moved in on Dodoria. When the ugly alien emerged, he fired an energy blast in his face. Dodoria had not seen it coming, but it didn't hurt him the slightest. Yet when he opened his eyes, he didn't see his adversary.

"So, you want to play that game?" He said, lifting his hand to his scouter. The device calculated for a moment, then pointed to his left. He could see a shadow. Without warning, he fired a blast towards it. It hit, blowing away the smoke for a split second. But it had been enough to see the Saiyan. Raditz had used the surviving one of the slow two as a shield. In his hands he held two silvery orbs. Dodoria flew through the new layer of smoke, to where he saw him the last, and to his surprise, Raditz was still there. Crutched, holding the orbs in front of him, he grinned.

"This one is specially made for you." He said, firing one, and then the other. Dodoria dodged the first, and slammed his hand into the second. It didn't even explode, shattering and withering away instead. He landed in frond of the Saiyan.

"And now you die." He said. The Saiyan did not stop grinning, razing one of his hands into the sky, and clutching it. Dodoria looked up in surprise, and saw the first blast, now many times larger than it had been, hovering over. He jumped away, and made his scouter read its power. Seven? He looked back at Raditz, but instead of the Saiyan, he saw a large ape, wearing armour, rapidly growing. A howl behind him told him it was not alone. He turned around, just in time to see two large fists coming at him from either side. They collided with a sickening crouch. The Raditz ape had fired a large beam from its mouth, killing the surviving soldiers. Then he aimed it up, blowing up the fake moon. Not even fully transformed, they turned back to normal. The whole fight had not taken more then twenty seconds.

"You've got to teach me how to do that." Nappa said, while rubbing his hands.

"Maybe later." Raditz answered, lying down, breathing hard. Performing the technique had taken its toll on him.

"Come on." Nappa said, reaching over and hoisting the long haired warrior on his shoulder. "There is no time to lose." ' _He may be weak, be he has some nasty tricks up his sleeves.'_

They flew off, towards where Dodoria and his men had came from. It didn't take them long to notice the large holes in the ground where the pods had crashed. Nappa picked out two, and blew up the rest. Then he dropped Raditz into one, and seated himself into the other. A sigh escaped his lips.

Free at last.

The jet flew towards the third ball at a steady pace over a vast forest. They lucked out with the second one, with none of Piccolo's minions in sight, and the ball in plain view. Yet Goku was still nowhere to be found. Thus they set a course for the next one, watching in any direction for an ambush. But none had came.

"Just a few more miles." Yamcha said, having taken Krillin's place in the co-pilots seat.

"This is going too smoothly." The Turtle Hermit said.

"Maybe we just got lucky?" Bulma suggested.

"With Piccolo?" Shen commented. "I doubt that."

"What is Goku doing anyway?" Krillin complained from the back.

"I don't know, but I wish we had met him already." Roshi answered.

"The next ball." Yamcha reassured them. "You'll see. He'd never let go of that four star ball."

"Not willingly." Roshi added.

"Ok." Shen crossed his arms. "Who is this Goku you keep talking about?"

"One of my students." Roshi answered. "He had completed his training and set out to travel the world. He is also the runner up of the last tournament. That boy has a talent for fighting, unlike anything I've ever seen."

"Runner up? That's not much of an accomplishment." Shen mocked him.

"Goku was only twelve at the time." Roshi countered

"Twelve?" Tien asked, finely speaking.

"Yes." Yamcha said, turning around. "But the real shocker came after the tournament. You see, Goku set out in search of the four star ball. It used to belong to his grandfather. But along the way, he came across the Red Ribbon Army. They were also searching for the dragon balls. So he wiped them out."

Tien and his master blinked. "He defeated the RR Army?" he asked.

"He annihilated them. Those poor soldiers never stood a chance. When we learned of where he went, we went after him as fast as we could. But Goku had already destroyed the entire army by himself. And he wasn't even winded."

"Yea." Bulma agreed. "How is that for a twelve year old kid?"

"Then why didn't he show up?" Tien asked. "At the tournament I mean."

"We don't know." Roshi bowed his head.

"Maybe this Goku kid already met with King Piccolo." Shen suggested.

But Krillin cut off the conversation. "Look outside." He said.

"What? Is it one of the demons?" Tien jumped up.

"No." Krillin answered. "But look at the forest below us. Its like entire pieces have been pulled out."

The others looked below. Krillin was right. Here, the vast sea of green had many brown spots in them. Some large and gruesome, and many small and rounder, spaced to each other irregularly. Then the vast sea of leaves was interrupted by a large valley.

"It's in there somewhere." Yamcha said, pointing at the valley on frond of them. Bulma flew over the edge, and started descending.

Then, too far away to see clearly, a small figure appeared. It flew straight up from the forest. Then a second one appeared, smaller, and rapidly gaining on the first. Everyone watched the scene with interest. The tiny dots collided with each other, hovering still for a moment, before the smaller dot flew off sideways. The larger followed it. They hovered near each other for a moment, before flying off in opposite directions.

Bulma was the first to regain her ability of speech.

"What in the world?"

He closed his eyes, concentrating on his hearing. He listened for a sound, a sound that didn't belong in the forest. A sound that would give his opponent away. A soft rustle of the leaves, the cry of a bird flying over, but no suspicious sounds were heard. He opened his eyes again. He lost his opponent. Spying over his shoulder, he thought he saw the others shadow. It was just a deer. The soft wind rustled the leaves again, but this time, it carried a something else. A scent, one all too familiar to him. He turned to the direction of the wind, and readied his fist for a strike. His eyes darted over the trees, his ears alert for any sign. A small patch of yellow flashed. ' _There.'_ He took off; ready to punch where he had seen the yellow. Then an alarming sound reached his ears, the soft breath of someone making an effort. He tilted his body to his left, and not a moment too soon, for a small foot flew over his back, narrowly missing it. He struck out with his other hand. Too late, his adversary had seen the strike coming and darted to the right, kicking out with his other foot. He was in no position to dodge, and the kick landed on his unguarded chest. The force behind the kick send him flying into a tree. He pulled himself up, just in time to see a small body land in frond of him.

"I win." The small one claimed. "Four to three."

He merely huffed in acknowledgement. The small boy darted to the spot where he had seen the yellow. A tiger skin was pulled out, and the boy put it on.

"You fell for it." The boy said, grinning at him.

"This time." He answered, lying down.

"Oh come on Vegeta, you always win."

Vegeta did not reply and looked to the blue sky instead. The boy didn't say anything, and laid down besides him, closing his eyes. Vegeta looked at his companion. He had stayed here for much longer that he had expected to be. At first, he had planned to train for the first year, with his new companion. And then, with his new ally, he would use the dragon balls to wish himself to wherever Frieza was, and challenge him. But he quickly abandoned this idea. Kakarot had proven himself to be much weaker then his brother. So Vegeta decided to toughen him up a little, to teach the boy. He would never have thought he would be the one to be taught. Fist there was this strange technique if his. Goku's power was very low, yet when he used what he called the Kamehameha, his power would triple. At the least. Vegeta imitated the technique, learning how to concentrate his power.

But even more surprisingly was how he had learned from the boy. Once had Goku insisted on playing hide and seek. After explaining how it worked, and a lot of persuasion, Vegeta agreed. But he was outmatched. Each and every time they played, Goku would either elude him for a long time, no matter how hard he searched, or find him in minutes, no matter how well he hid. Vegeta's senses were dulled, from never really being used. Yet Goku's hadn't. Eventually he became fed up with losing, and attacked the boy while he was supposed to hide. And from that moment on, they played hide and seek, Saiyan style. Both would hide, and both would seek, and whoever landed the fist hit would win the round.

Vegeta never admitted it, but he loved this new hunting game. Neither of them were prey, and when he was jumped, if he could counter Goku and land a hit before he did, Vegeta would win anyways. His senses, most noticeably his sense of smell, had sharpened dramatically. It did not take long for both of them to develop a sixth sense to each other. Or that was what Vegeta thought, until he noticed he could feel the presence of the animals. He could feel their energy. A quick question confirmed Goku could do the same, instinctively knowing what took him months to find out. Learning to repress energy was quickly learned afterwards.

Over the two years, Goku's strength had raised dramatically. Although not yet near Vegeta's level.

"Kakarot." He spoke up. "One more round."

"But I won already." The younger Saiyan complained.

Vegeta stood up. "No you didn't, you haven't reached five yet." With these words, he flew off.

Goku flew off in the opposite direction. While landing, he charged an energy blast, and shot it to his right. Suppressing his power, and darting off to the left, he hoped Vegeta would take the bait. He only had to wait for a few seconds, then his partner came into sight, jumping from tree to tree. He glanced around him, and waited, looking for a sign. Goku even stilled his breathing while he crept closer. Softly planting his feet to the ground, he readied for an attack. But Vegeta had other plans. Before Goku could even react, Vegeta flew backwards towards him. Making half a loop, Vegeta now flew upside down, facing Goku.

"Found you." He said, grinning, just before turning further and bringing down his foot. Goku rolled to the side, avoiding the foot, and kicked up. Vegeta caught the attack, but the force behind the kick launched him into the air. Goku jumped to his feet and took of after him. With the element of surprise gone, he had to move fast, before Vegeta could throw his superior power in the game. He arched out with his right fist, performing a hook punch. Vegeta merely twisted midair, letting the punch go past him. While Goku flew past him, he planted his fist in the boy's stomach, causing him to double over, and sending him some distance away..

"Four to Four." He claimed. Waiting for the younger Saiyan to recover.

"How did you find me?" Goku asked.

"You powered down after launching your attack, so I could feel you going in the opposite direction."

"And I was so sure it would work." Goku said, pushing himself upright again.

"I will win this time." He said, before flying off.

Vegeta set off in the opposite direction. Upon landing he powered down, and moved backwards. He reached out with his senses, trying to find an early careless move. Yet he found something else. Several energy signatures floating some distance away.

No longer caring about the game, he floated off, just high enough to look over the trees. Behind him, he could feel Goku's energy approaching. It seems he noticed as well.

"Who are they?" He asked.

"How am I supposed to know?"

And that's it for chapter three.


	4. Ch 4 Demon King III

AN: Thanks for the nice reviews.

* * *

Ch 4 Demon King III

* * *

The jet was still hovering above the trees.

"Don't you think we should land already?" Yamcha suggested.

"But what if they are Piccolo's minions?" Bulma argued

"Then they would not be fighting each other." Tien stood up. "Besides, I've proven I can handle those things."

"Well yes, but still."

"But still what?" Tien opened the door and hovered out.

"Wait." Roshi called him back. Then he turned to Yamcha. "Which way is the dragon ball?"

"A bit to the right." He answered. "We're close by actually."

"Then let's just grab the ball and fly off." Oolong said.

"I'm not running from anyone. Especially not from Piccolo's vermin." Tien said.

Bulma had already turned the plane. "You can stay if you want, but not all of us have superpowers, you know?"

Once the plane set down, Yamcha looked at the radar again. "It's directly behind us." He said to Bulma.

"But that's solid rock." Krillin complained.

"Hey I can see a cave." Puar said from the back.

"Mystery solved." Oolong said.

"Shut up, pig." Bulma said harshly. Then she turned to the others. "Well? That ball isn't going to collect itself."

"If only." Krillin laughed. "That would have made this trip a lot shorter."

Bulma made an angry face, and was about to reply. Then she opened the door.

"Fine! I'll go get it myself!"

"Bulma!" Before she could slam the door, a voice from outside spoke up. Bulma looked around, but saw no one.

"Up here." The voice said again. As she looked up, she saw a young-looking boy. A boy with spiky black hair and a large smile on his face.

"Goku!" She yelled.

"Goku?" Several voices sounded in choir from inside the jet. Goku let himself fall from the sky, as the others ran out of the vehicle.

"Goku, it's really you." Krillin said happily.

"Hey Krillin, of course it's me."

"But what happened to you?" Roshi asked him.

"What do you mean?" Goku put his hands behind his head, not understanding.

"And where did you get these weird clothes?" Krillin asked him. It was not such a weird question, since Goku had shown up in the skin of a tiger over his torso, wearing it like a toga, and wore pants made from something scaled, while leaving his feet uncovered.

"I made them myself." The answer came. "But what are you doing here?"

"We could ask the same of you." Roshi said

"Well, we live there." He pointed to the cave.

"Wait, then that dragon ball is yours?"

"Uh-huh." He nodded.

Then another man landed next to Goku. This man was two heads over Goku. He wore a shirt and pants made of brown fur. His black hair stood straight up. From the scowl he wore, he was not too happy. The others looked at him in surprise.

"Kakarot." He said. "Do you know these weaklings?"

"Yes." Goku answered with a grin. "These are the friends I told you about. Remember"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Of course I remember, you wouldn't shut up about them."

"Err… Who might you be?" Roshi found his voice.

"Yea, and who are you calling weaklings." Oolong said from Roshi's back.

"Prince Vegeta." He answered, scowling even deeper.

"Well." Tien stepped forward. " _Pleasure_ to meet you, _my liege_ , but we have work to do."

"Yes." Bulma shot up. "Goku, mind if we borrow your dragon ball for a bit?"

"What for?"

"Well…" She didn't know where to start.

"The ancient Demon King Piccolo has returned." Shen butted in "We are collecting the dragon balls to keep them out of his hands and to wish for his death, if remotely possible. So hand it over if you please."

"Can't you just fight this Piccil guy?" Vegeta asked, not breaking eye contact with Tien.

"Piccolo, and no, he is too strong for us to fight." Roshi answered him. "On top of that, he has an army of demons at his command. In fact, we encountered one on our way here. There is a good chance those demons will come here, looking for your dragon ball.

"Those 'demons' of yours wouldn't happen to be large green and scaled, with six limbs?'

"Yes, did you see them?" Roshi had a slight panic in his voice.

"We had one for breakfast." Vegeta laughed at their shocked expressions.

"Hey, Yamcha." Goku called the scarred warrior. "What happened to you?"

"This guy happened." He pointed to Tien behind him with his thumb. "Krillin and I fought him at the tournament. Speaking of which, why weren't you there."

Goku looked at him blankly, then grinned as he brought his hand behind his head.

"I forgot."

"You forgot?" Krillin asked him, baffled.

"Yes, I was training every day with Vegeta."

"I see." Roshi said, sizing up the alien. "How did you two meet anyway?'

"Remember when I went searching for someone with a tail like mine?" Goku said innocently.

"You didn't." Bulma gasped looking at the taller Saiyan, the picture of Goku transforming under the full moon sharply in her mind.

"When I wished to meet someone, the dragon brought him here. And now we live here."

"For now." Vegeta added. Goku looked back at Vegeta and the smile suddenly vanished from his face. He looked back at the others with pained eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Bulma asked, fearing he meant what she was thinking.

"About my transformations." Goku clarified. "You knew, didn't you? So why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh Goku." Bulma said, at a loss for words. It was Roshi who answered.

"We thought, now that the moon was gone, that you would never find out." He bowed his head. "We didn't really want to hurt you by telling you."

"So you kept it from him." Vegeta said, crossing his arms. "He told me. He told me about his grandfather. And about the time in the castle. And his first tournament." He glared at them.

"And what were we supposed to do, tell a twelve year old he was the one who killed his grandfather?" Yamcha snapped. It hurt. It hurt seeing the pure and carefree Goku looking at them like that.

"Yes." Vegeta answered. "You should have, then he would be able to learn to control his transformations. But instead you opted to leave him in the dark, endangering the entire planet."

"Learn to control?" Roshi asked, thinking about the statement. "Does that mean you transform as well?"

"Yes, but unlike Kakarot, I remain consciousness." He unwrapped his tail, shocking the others. "The Ozaru is a unique ability of our species."

"Your species?" Bulma asked, her mind racing.

Vegeta nodded. "But that will have to wait. Didn't you say something about a Demon Poci?"

"Is he strong?" Goku said, with excitement in his eyes.

"Yes. Well. I ehh…" Krillin stammered, but what he wanted to said would never be known, for female a voice sounded from the sky.

"King Piccolo, we have arrived." Everyone looked up at once to see a large ship hovering overhead.

"Mai, you idiot, that's the external speakers." A differed voice sounded. Vegeta cursed to himself. He hadn't even noticed the now clear presence.

It was silent for a few seconds; everyone was too surprised to say anything. Then a small figure distanced itself from the ship, and grew rapidly. When the figure was almost at the ground it suddenly slowed down, and landed softly. It was a man, larger than life, with green skin. He looked old, and wrinkled, and had brown spots over his biceps, forearms and shoulders. He wore blue robes, with a red cape, and a large symbol on the front. The symbol read 'Devil'."

"So that's him." It was not a question. Tien sized him up. "Demon King Piccolo."

"That's me." The green monster answered.

"Then you are the one responsible for killing Chiaotzu."

"Oh, could you please forgive me. My heart is heavy with burden." The King laughed.

Without warning, Tien shot a Dodon ray in his face. Yet the King was unharmed, though he had stopped laughing.

"Yes, you are quite strong." The grin returned. "For a human."

With that he extended his finger, and shot a beam not unlike the Dodon Ray. Tien narrowly dodged it, and charged in. He pushed off the ground, and reached out with a large roundhouse kick. Piccolo merely bended backwards a little, letting the kick swoop over his head. His right hand swung upwards in an uppercut, hitting Tien's leg at the knee. The sound of bones breaking could be heard. Yet Tien could not feel it. He pointed to the demon with his palm, and let out a large kiai. Piccolo was thrown backwards by the force, yet remained on his feet. He shot two more beams, this time from his eyes. They hit his opponent in the other leg. Tien fell. Piccolo extended his finger once more.

"This is the end for you." He said. And with mockery he added; "Noble warrior."

To his surprise, Roshi had stepped in front of Tien.

"So, you are going to give up your life for him. Very well, the order in which you die makes no matter to me."

"Fool." Roshi spoke, with an unnatural tranquility in his voice. "Do you not recognize me? I was there, the day you were sealed."

"WHAT!" He shouted.

Roshi reached with his hand inside of his robes. He pulled out a capsule, pressed it, and threw it to the ground. It was an electronic rice cooker.

"NO!" He yelled. But Roshi pushed his hands in frond if him. They glowed green. Not bothering with a finger, Piccolo thrust his hand forward, charging his entire palm.

"KIKOHO!" A voice behind him creamed. A split second after the voice reached his pointed ears, he was pushed face first into the ground. Though it had not harmed him, with a face full of rage, he pushed himself up and turned. Above him floated another old man. This one had his grey hair upwards, like a set of wings, and wore green and yellow robes. He had barely time to register the man, before he was pushed to the ground again with a second 'KIKOHO!', this time on his back. He barely lifted his head as a third wave hit him, pushing him even deeper into the ground. He lifted himself up using his ki, yet a fourth wave came his way, and humiliatingly, he was threw into the ground yet again. The technique had made a large hole, and he was on the bottom.

No longer trying to get up, he pushed his hand up, aimed, and shot out a beam. It hit Shen squarely in the chest, coming out the other side. Then he flew up, and passed the falling man on his way. Shen hit the ground with a thud.

"MASTER!" The three eyed man screamed.

Piccolo turned around and fired a shot at Roshi, but missed. For Goku had jumped in, and deflected the blast. He shot a second, this time with his palm. But Goku backhanded the blast away as if it was a mere annoyance. It exploded a large distance away.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he screamed at the boy, but Goku did not yield. Behind him, the turtle hermit stepped sideways, as not to catch his pupil as well.

"Evil Containment Wave." He said, releasing the green wave upon King Piccolo. The king was trapped in the technique, and with all of his remaining strength, Roshi threw him towards he rice cooker. But the violent winds the wave generated were shaking the device, and just as Roshi threw the Demon king towards it, the lid closed. The wave recoiled off of the device, which was blown away, and disappeared. Piccolo lay in the grass. Then he got up as Roshi dropped to one knee.

"No." He whispered. Then he fell.

"Master Roshi." Goku felt his master's ki drop, and turned around.

"You failed!" The Demon was laughing at his adversaries. Then Goku turned around. Piccolo barely got a glimpse of the anger in his eyes, when his chest exploded with pain. He looked down, and found the boy. His arm was imbedded from his shoulder into his opponent's chest. He gripped the Demon with his other hand and pulled out. The arm was covered in purple liquid. Piccolo screamed. Then he blasted the ground, creating a large dust cloud that covered everyone.

Vegeta and Goku could feel the Demon's ki, now rapidly declining, shoot towards their ship, then into the cave, and finely it flew high, towards the ship he came from. It all happened within the span of a second.

Goku used a Kiai, creating a wind with pushed the dust away. Then his eyes found his master. His ki was nearly gone. He reached over and began to refill the man's ki with his own. He turned the Vegeta.

"Vegeta, get some sensus from Korin."

Vegeta had yet to move from the spot in which he landed.

"HURRY!" The boy screamed at him, anger filling his eyes.

Vegeta considered a bit, and then flew off. 'It's not like this Piccolo is a challenge to me anyhow.' He thought while flying to Korin Tower which was quite close.

Meanwhile, King Piccolo landed on his ship. The moment he arrived the three fools who released him ran towards him. He pushed them away with his energy, then he concentrated it on his chest. With a pain filled scream, the wound shot out some yellow liquid, and was suddenly closed. Piccolo hunched, heaving. Then he looked at his fist, which he opened. It revealed three dragon balls. Without waiting he shot inside. He was in a hurry. The image of Goku was driving him. It was not the wound he received, but the power the boy radiated afterwards which he feared. It was easily ten times his own. For Piccolo could sense energy as well. He reached his throne chamber and grabbed the balls. Not even bothering with the door he shot through the roof and threw down the balls.

"Shenron!" He shouted. "Come forth and fulfill my wish!" The balls glowed as the dragon was summoned.

"You have disturbed my slumber." The heavy voice boomed, making everyone below the ship jump. "Speak your wish, and I shall grant it to you if it is within my power."

"Shenron!" Piccolo screamed back. "Grant me power! Grant me the power I possessed before I separated from Kami!"

"I cannot." The dragon declined, to Piccolo's surprise and fear. "For it is not within my power to grant."

"Then grant me a portion, a piece as large as you can grant me." Piccolo screamed up sounding desperate.

"As you wish." Shenron's eyes glowed, and a light encompassed Piccolo.

* * *

Thanks for reading.

Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack, for Beta-reading, and fixing some awkward phrasing.


	5. Ch 5 Demon King IV

AN:

Review from nimedhel09; Oooooh! So many things happening! Excited to read the next chapters! Veggie-chan not interfering in a fight is weird, but that must be because he doesn't care about a "weakling" like Piccolo.

One thing I have to point out is that the chapter was a bit rushed in my opinion. I still enjoyed it a lot, but it was a bit rushed.

Me; Actually, I wrote this chapter before I finished the previous one, which made writing that one a bit weird. A mistake I wont be making again.

And yes, Vegeta didn't interfere with the fight because he didn't care about it. But really, I just needed him out of the way. At this point, Vegeta is several times more powerful than the rest combined, making the fight very short and anti-climatic, unless he didn't enter. In the first part anyway.

* * *

Ch 4 Demon King IV

* * *

Goku was pouring more energy into his master, yet Roshi's ki was still fading. Then he looked up. The sky had darkened, and thunder was clashing across the sky. Then the dragon appeared, larger than life, floating above the ship. Goku bit his teeth together; he could not leave Roshi's side. He focused his ears, trying to hear what went on above him.

"You have disturbed my slumber." Everyone jumped at the loud voice. Even Tien tore his eyes off of his master, who by miracle had survived.

"Speak your wish, and I shall grant it to you if it is within my power."

Bulma and Yamcha went to a ghostlike paleness.

"Shenron!" It was a scream, but it could barely be heard. Everyone was holding their breath. Yet the rest of the wish made was inaudible, even to the Saiyan present.

"I cannot, for it is not within my power to grant." A sigh of relief, whatever Piccolo wished for, he would not get.

"Then grant me a portion, a piece as large as you can grant me!" This time everyone could hear it clearly.

"As you wish."

Goku was about to ask, when he suddenly felt it. Power. Ungodly power. He thought Vegeta was strong, but this one was a hundred times, no, a thousand times larger. Suddenly he envied the others, being unable to sense their doom approaching.

"Your wish has been granted. I shall take my leave." The dragon glowed up, and Goku expected to see the dragon balls rise into the sky. Yet, before he could disappear, the dragon was pierced by a yellow beam. A large explosion covered the scene, but several green pieces soared trough the sky for a few seconds, then vanished.

When the smoke cleared, a loud kiai echoed through the air. The sky itself seemed to tremble at the enormous power. The plane in the sky shook violently, then came crashing down. In the sky, a small spot could be seen, hovering between heaven and earth. Then it came down. Piccolo landed, the earth cracked beneath his feet. He had his eyes closed, seemingly enjoying the rush of power.

If Goku didn't know better, he would have thought this was a new adversary, a different person. Yet he knew all too well. He looked at the Demon King. He had changed; his wrinkled skin had become smooth and a few shades lighter, a fresher green. The brown spots on his muscles became a fresh pink. Through the small hole in his robes, a patch of green could be seen. Then he opened his eyes, and focused them on Goku. He reached out with his left hand to his right shoulder, and with a single movement, he tore off his robes. He wore a gi underneath it of the same colour with a red belt and the demon symbol. There was also a small hole in the chest. His mouth widened in a sickening smile.

"Payback time." He shot a small beam through Goku's leg, causing Goku to fall backwards. Then he shot another one, through the other leg, laughing all the while.

"Go on then, great warrior, fight me." Yet Goku didn't, he used his ki to push himself up, and floated back to Roshi, continuing to replenish his energy.

"So this is the greatest warrior this world has to offer? A mere child, too scared to even face me?" He eyed Goku for a bit. "Your power has gone down considerably. Or perhaps, you're hiding it." He stroked his chin. "Yes, that makes sense. How else could I not have noticed you before?"

At this point, a blue wave hit the back of his head. He ignored it. "But that would mean you can also sense other's powers. Yes, that's why you won't attack, isn't it? Perhaps you are just hoping for me to be merciful." He shot another beam, through Goku's left arm this time. Yet Goku, with tear-filled eyes, grinded his teeth, and didn't even look away from Roshi.

Piccolo, having grown bored, let his eyes wander over the others. 'Look at them, cattle ready for the slaughter. And these two, they were already injured before I even arrived. Perhaps Tambourine did a number on them, before he was killed… Is that a pig? And a floating cat? What did they bring them for? To amuse me as they begged for their deaths? All of them… there is one missing.'

Upon realizing, Piccolo counted his adversaries, and he came up one short. He extended his ki sense, and found a large power heading his way. He looked towards the sky, where the warrior would appear. And a few moments later, he did.

Vegeta landed, a brown bag in his fist, and looked at the battle site. He had sensed what was going on, and had debated with himself to get into hiding when he sensed Piccolo's power rise tremendously. Yet here he was where he expected to be his grave. 'At least Frieza couldn't be this strong.' It was the thought that forced him to go back. That and the memory of the boy who took him in. He had told him about his past, about what he used to do before coming to this world. But Kakarot didn't run, didn't shun him for it. He accepted it. He smiled even. 'That life is over now. You can start over here, with us.' He heard the words echo through his head, as he stared down King Piccolo.

"Well, well, well. Came to die, have you? You should have run." The large demon mocked him.

"Run where? There is nowhere left to run." The words slipped out his mouth before he even thought about it.

"How true." Piccolo smiled. Vegeta tore his eyes off of him, and focused on Goku instead. He lifted up the small bag, and threw it to Goku, who caught it.

"Any last words?"

Vegeta looked back at Piccolo, and found him aiming an energy beam at him. Instead of answering he threw an energy wave of his own. He hadn't hoped to do damage with it, but instead, he messed up the beam that was charging. It exploded at Piccolo's fingertip, taking the finger with it. Piccolo looked down, surprised.

"Nice trick." He said, and with a sickening slash, a new finger shot out of his hand. "But futile."

"It helped me." Vegeta sounded, now behind him. Piccolo turned around lazily, only to find Vegeta charging two purple energy balls.

"Go ahead, try." He said, standing motionless. Vegeta did not respond, now focusing his entire mind on the attack. Piccolo assessed its power. It was low. Lower even then the boy had been. Then it shot up. High. He frowned. Vegeta brought his hands together, releasing the technique.

"Gallic Gun." Before Piccolo realized, he was struck by it. He put up his hand, only to find he could push away the beam with ease. He looked back up, where Vegeta still floated.

"Such useless efforts." He commented. "You're just delaying the inevitable." Then, as if surprised at his own words, his face changed. He turned back to the others. Roshi was standing; Yamcha and Krillin had torn off their bandages and stood in a fighting pose. Tien was crouching, with Goku nearby. Piccolo just saw him put something green in the dying man's mouth. A few seconds passed, the man jumped up.

"What is going on?"

"Did you think we would go down so easily?" Roshi spat at him.

Piccolo grumbled, and charged an energy ball at his fingertip. At this moment a purple wave hit him in the neck. It didn't hurt him, but he found it very annoying. He turned, and fired the beam at Vegeta instead. Vegeta crossed his arms to block it, but he couldn't. The beam went through his arms and his chest. He fell.

"Now that that's dealt with." Piccolo mused. Behind him, Vegeta, still falling, chewed something and swallowed, having put a sensu in his mouth beforehand. The hole in his chest healed instantaneously and his power spiked. He charged at his would-be killer, who had turned his back to him once more. He focused all his energy in his fist, and swung it at Piccolo's head at hard as he could. But instead of doing damage, his fist gave way under the pressure, flattening itself and his wrist unto the head. He barely had time to register before Piccolo turned, and swung his hand out in a horizontal chop. He hit Vegeta in the neck, separating head from body.

With his other hand he fired a wave at Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Goku, who were charging him simultaneously. Though Goku managed to get out of its way at the last moment, the others were not so lucky, and felt their bodies disintegrate on the spot.

Piccolo shot out his eye lasers yet Goku moved away again before the energy even left his body. He withdrew the hand he used to kill Vegeta and slashed it horizontally, but instead of a refined technique, he let out raw energy. Goku jumped up, but was still caught in the wide wave and was thrown backwards.

'It's my new power.' Piccolo realized. 'I haven't had time yet to adjust, to learn to control it. And he's using that against me.' No longer bothering with energy, he flew forward, and aimed a punch at Goku, who dodged at the last moment. 'He's not as fast as I am, but he reads me, he reads what I'm going to do. That's how he keeps dodging me.'

But that knowledge would not help him, as he could not control his power, and thus couldn't rob his enemy of this advantage. Instead, he pushed himself harder, tried to force his power up even more. And he could. A wave of pure energy flew off of him, throwing back everything in its path. Trees were uprooted, grass was torn out. Even rock crumbled with the powerful waves of energy washing off of him. Then he was forced to stop, his body was screaming out in agony. It could not yet take his newfound powers. But Piccolo didn't mind. He figured this raw power would overcome anything the brat might come up with.

He searched for Goku for a second and then he found his energy. He flew towards him, and materializing in front of Goku, who didn't even have time to react. Piccolo drew back his fist and, for a single moment, realization came to Goku's eyes, as the fist flew towards his stomach, and pierced it. Piccolo held the position for a moment, then reached over and grabbed the brown bag that the kid was holding, and disintegrated it. Then he thrust his arm to his side, as if disregarding something, and Goku was thrown to the ground. Piccolo could feel the energy leavening the small body. For a single moment, he felt joy. Then he remembered the two old men, who almost sealed him a few minutes ago. He searched for a moment then flew off.

On the ground, Goku could feel his blood flowing out of his body. He felt with his tongue in his mouth, searching. He found the small lump he was looking for, chewed and swallowed it. He had seen how Vegeta had recovered, and used the distraction to put a sensu in his own mouth. For a moment it did nothing then he felt the familiar rush of his wounds closing. He felt his energy spiking, yet he suppressed it. He could not afford to let the Demon know he was still alive. He got up and followed Piccolo on the ground. He didn't have to go far, for Piccolo had already landed. Right in front of Master Roshi. Goku jumped from tree to tree, and soon caught up.

He found Piccolo, standing with his hand outstretched, and a purple ball glowing in it. Across from him were the Turtle Hermit and the Crane Hermit standing side by side, their arms outstretched and focusing their energy into a single green ball. It was a stalemate. But it would not last long for Goku could feel the energy increasing in Piccolo's palm at every heartbeat.

Taking another leaf out of Vegeta's book, he charged a Kamehameha, releasing it at Piccolo's hand, destabilizing the ball he held. It exploded, creating a powerful wind. The two Hermits did not delay to react to the new situation and fired their technique. Piccolo blinked at his ball exploding in his face, then saw the green beam rushing towards him. He took off.

For a single moment it looked like he escaped, then his foot got caught in the green aura, dragging him in. He screamed, struggling at all his might, and fought against the technique.

Goku looked around, searching for the container they would use. Yet he found nothing. He didn't know anything about the technique, but had seen how it failed by bouncing off of the lid of the rice cooker and knew it was important. And the two old men could not keep it up forever. Then he was struck by an idea. He ran to the plane, which was now completely blown apart and searched. He found something and ran back to the battle. He held a small, white bottle used to hold medicine. He emptied it on the way.

"MASTER ROSHI" he screamed, holding up the small bottle. The duo saw their chance and moved the beam towards the bottle. Piccolo struggled, freeing one hand. He fired a beam at the bottle, but missed due to Goku having seen the beam coming. He held on tightly to the bottle, as the wave was now flowing into it. He could see Piccolo pass him, and nearly grabbing him with his free hand, but couldn't reach. He disappeared into the small bottle.

"CLOSE IT!" Roshi screamed at him. Goku grabbed the lid and pushed it at the opening of the bottle as hard as he could. Piccolo had not yet given up and was releasing as much energy as he could. Slowly the lid reached the bottle and with a quick turn Goku closed it. He could hear Piccolo's scream fading into nothingness.

* * *

And that's it for now.

Thanks for reading, and please, leave a honest opinion on my work so far.

Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack, for Beta-reading, and fixing some awkward phrasing.

* * *

Note; There seems to be a bit of confusion about the powers Goku, Vegeta and King Piccolo possesses.

First off, Piccolo wishes for power, not youth.

Remember, when Piccolo Jr. and Kami fused they possessed a power far beyond that of a Super Saiyan. In this FF, King Piccolo remembers having that much power, and wishes to have it again. (And gets it denied because it is beyond the dragons power.) So he wishes for a piece of THAT power, not the power he had in canon. And a small piece of several hundred million is still a large chunk.

And he got his youth to boot, because I like his young form better.

The power Goku and Vegeta could sense was his true potential, while the power he could use without destroying himself on the spot was much, much lower. Though still several times that of Vegeta.

He is inapt at using this much power, and Goku is used to fighting someone several times stronger than himself.

Goku spend his time training with Vegeta, so he is much stronger now. While Vegeta spent most of his time training Goku, though he learned a lot, his power hardly increased. I guess at this point in time, he would be weaker than his canon counterpart. Though still over ten thousand.


	6. Ch 6 Aftermath I

AN:

Sorry for the late update.

I forgot. ;p

* * *

Aftermath I

* * *

It was quiet. There were no birds, no animals. No water running in the distance, not even a breeze to rustle the leaves. As if the world itself was holding its breath.

He looked at the small bottle in his hands. He had seen the Demon disappear in it, yet he still could not believe how such a tiny bottle could hold something so powerful. He looked up at the body of his master. In his struggle he had not even noticed how the energy had slipped away. Not until it was too late. He turned, setting his eyes on a scorch mark on the ground. Gone. In the blink of an eye. And behind that, a headless body. His newfound brother. He fell to his knees, letting the bottle slip out of his fingers. How could he have let this happen? He could have stopped it. He should have killed the Demon when he had the chance. But he blew it and now he was alone. His friends had paid the ultimate price.

He set his eyes on the sky. 'No!' He stood up, and took off into the sky. He let his eyes wander over the land. 'There!' He flew off, towards the crash site of the plane. Upon landing, he felt several energy signatures, most of them unconscious. He looked around for a bit, and walked towards the energy that was conscious. It revealed to be a lizard like creature. One of Piccolo's minions no doubt. It was trapped beneath the ship, but still alive. It looked at him. He charged an energy blast.

"No wait." It said. "If you kill me, master Piccolo will come after you."

"Your master is gone." He replied, his voice devoid of emotion. Then he fired, killing it.

He flew up again, and started searching for something. Soon he found one and the others were close by. Round stones. The dragon balls. But instead of white, the balls had turned grey, and they had not spread. He knew he saw right. The dragon was gone, killed by Piccolo.

He collected them regardless and flew back. He landed next to the bottle. The one that held a demon. Then he felt something. It was faint, but he could feel energy. He looked at the place it came from. It was a rock. With eyes. He blinked. Then the rock puffed into smoke, and had turned into a blue cat. There were others beneath it. Oolong and Bulma stood up.

"You're alive." He sounded hoarse.

"Yes, thanks to Puar." Bulma answered. She looked around. Then she walked up to Goku.

"I'm sorry, Goku." She said, putting her arms around him. He let her. They stood there for a few minutes, until Bulma let go.

"He's gone." He said. "The dragon is gone. Killed by Piccolo."

"I know." She picked up the balls, and put them in her bag. Goku picked up a large rock, and set it upon the scorch mark on the ground. Then he collected a few more, and buried his friends where they laid. Finely, he grabbed the bottle, putting it underneath the tiger pelt, and walked back to Bulma.

"Where to now?" Oolong asked.

"Perhaps I could make a suggestion?" A new voice spoke. Everyone turned on the spot, and set eyes on a white, floating cat with a cane.

"My, my, what a mess this has become."

"Master Korin." Goku was surprised to see him out of the tower.

"Korin? The legendary master who lives on top of Korin Tower." Bulma said, glancing at the cat.

"Listen, there might be a way to bring everyone back." He continued.

"How? The dragon is gone, and the dragon balls have been turned to stone."

"I know Goku, I know. You will have to take that up with the one who made them."

"The dragon balls were made by someone?"

"Makes sense, they couldn't have popped up out of nowhere." Bulma theorized.

"But who made them?" Goku asked.

"Easy, it was Kami." Korin said with certainty.

"Kami?" Goku questioned.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Bulma put her hands on her hips and leaned over.

"No, no, you misunderstand. It is a person named Kami. He is the one who can restore the dragon balls."

"So where is he?"

"He lives high above Korin tower, in a place called Kami's Lookout."

"Alright." With that Goku wanted to take off.

"Wait, before you go." Korin called after him.

"What is it?" he turned around midair and floated while looking down at Korin.

"Listen, in ancient time, Piccolo and Kami were one person. I don't know how, but they split. That's why Kami will look like Piccolo, but I assure you, they are different people."

"Same person?"

"Yes, he'll have to explain that one himself. Just don't go attacking him, ok?"

"Sure." And Goku flew off on his way to meet Kami.

-Line Break-

When he arrived at the base of Korin Tower, he shot up straight into the sky. It did not take long before the top of the tower to flash past him. Going further up, he flew as fast as he could. He started wondering whether he had missed it when something came into view. It was a platform, floating high above the earth. He flew past the edge and landed. The first thing he noticed was the air. It was very thin up here, yet nowhere as thin as it should be. He looked down to the large clouds far below.

Then he looked around. It was the strangest place. The ground was covered with white tiles and there were several trees standing in two rows. To his left was a large building made of white stone and golden roofs. He walked for a bit. Then he saw a man, sitting on a rug, with several birds with him. He was feeding them. It was a strange man, he looked plump, his skin was completely black and he was wearing baggy white pants with a red vest which was not closed. He also had a white turban and golden earrings.

Goku walked up to him.

"Hi." He said.

"Hello." The man answered.

"Are you the one called Kami?"

"No, it is Mr. Popo."

"I'm Goku."

"Indeed. Kami has been watching Goku for some time now."

"Do you know Kami?"

"Yes. Mr. Popo knows Kami very well. But why has Goku come to see Kami?'

"I want to ask him to restore the dragon balls."

"Does Goku even know what Goku is asking? Reviving the dragon balls is no easy task."

"So he can do it?" Goku's eyes sparkled with hope.

"Yes, Kami could. But before Goku can see Kami, Goku has to pass a test."

"Pass a test? What kind of test?"

"Goku has to fight with Mr. Popo. And if Goku wins, Goku can meet with Kami."

"Sure, I could do that."

Mr. Popo stood up.

"How wonderful, Mr. Popo has not had a match in centuries."

Goku took on a fighting pose. Yet his opponent was not moving. Even the birds were still on his shoulders.

"Aren't we going to fight?" he asked, feeling uncertain.

"Sure, go ahead." His answer came.

"Ok then, here I come." Goku started off with a slow punch. Yet when he flew towards Mr. Popo, the latter held out his fist, and since his arms were longer than Goku's, he flew against it. Goku rubbed his face.

"That hurt."

"Goku let down Goku's guard." The man stated.

"That was a lucky shot. I won't let that happen again."

"By all means."

"Watch this." Goku disappeared and was moving faster than the human eye could see.

"Oh no," Mr. Popo said, as he held up his hands. "Where has Goku gone?" Then he suddenly struck out, punching Goku in the face again, causing him to fall down. "Got Goku again."

He drew in his hand and looked at Goku.

"Goku is not very strong." He said to him.

Goku felt anger boiling up in him. Without saying anything, he powered up, causing a shockwave over the lookout. Then he looked at his opponent. Mr. Popo still did not move from his spot.

"Look what Goku did." The man said. "Goku frightened the birds away."

"I thought this was a match!"

"Yes, it is."

"Then take this!" Goku flew forward again, this time with a kick. Popo leaned aside and struck out his hand. Goku had seen it coming and ducked underneath it. Then he swooped his leg, hoping to get the other at the leg. Yet Popo jumped up. Goku followed and still turning from the low swoop, he rotated into a roundhouse kick. Popo dodged it again.

Both landed, facing each other.

"Wow, you're really strong."

"No, Mr. Popo is using less power than Goku. It is a shame. Goku has such great power, yet Goku makes such bad use of it."

"What do you mean bad use?"

"Goku needs to learn control. Only then can Goku pass the test."

"Control? But I am controlling."

"No, Goku is not. Has Goku forgotten how Goku fought with Piccolo?'

"Well, no. But that's not the same."

"It is from Mr. Popo's point of view. Goku is wasting too much energy. Here." He pulled two bells from inside his jacket. "Put one on the belt. Like so." He said as he put a bell onto his belt. Goku took the other one and put it on his belt. "Now, attack Mr. Popo again."

"What? But I can't beat you."

"The goal is not to win, but to learn. Quickly now."

Goku charged, his bell ringing loudly, at the man again who dodged it by sliding to the left. Goku stumbled, but charged back with a kick. This time Popo jumped up, made a flip and kicked Goku in the back of the head.

"Ow, hey!"

"What did Goku do?"

"I attacked, like you said."

"And what else?"

"Err… you back flipped?"

"What did Mr. Popo do before that?"

"Well, you dodged my punch, and before that you put on… a… bell?" His eyes were drawn to the bell on Popo's belt. It had not made a sound. Not even when he jumped.

"How did you move without making the bell ring?"

"Why does a bell ring, Goku?"

"Because it's moved?" To demonstrate he pulled off his bell and shook it.

"Wait, bells ring when you move them back and forth." He swung the bell around in a single fluent movement. This time it was silent.

"And those are the redundant moves." Mr. Popo explained. "Those also take energy to make, yet do not help one in combat. But knowing won't be enough."

"Right. I have to learn how to really move that way. But once I do that, then I could beat you?"

"Perhaps, but that could take years. And even then Goku might still not be strong enough."

"What, but I don't have time for that."

"Not enough time?"

"Well, I need the dragon balls to wish back my friends. I can't wait that long."

"Yet Goku cannot meet Kami unless Goku beats Mr. Popo."

"Fine! If that's what it takes, I'll do it." Goku clenched his fists.

"That's good to hear." A different voice sounded this time from within the building. There was a shape in the doorway, but it was too dark to see.

"Is that you, Mr. Kami?"

"Exactly." Mr. Popo answered for him.

"I will meet with you now." The voice said as the shape stepped forward. It revealed a green man, looking almost exactly like Piccolo did before he made his wish. Goku felt a shiver creep up his spine. Had he not known, he might have attacked him. He knew yet he still felt uncomfortably.

"Goku is a very fortunate boy." Popo commented.

"So, you're Piccolo's other half?" Goku asked him.

"Yes, I am Kami. But you came here for a reason, did you not?"

"Yes, well I… I want to wish my friends back."

"Straightforward aren't you?" Kami said with a smile. "I cannot grant wishes like Shenron, the dragon, does. But I can remake him."

"Really? Will you do that?" Goku jumped for joy.

"On one condition." Kami continued. "From now on you must take greater care of your friends, and protect the powers of Shenron."

"Sure, I can do that."

"I will hold you to that." Then he turned to his servant. "Mr. Popo, I would like you to begin reappearing the statue immediately."

"Yes Kami." He said, before running inside. He came out again carrying a glass bell. In it were many small pieces.

"I didn't realize it was this bad. Piccolo must really have done a number on it. Can it be fixed?"

"Of course, Kami." Mr. Popo said, sitting down. Goku walked to him and bended over. He saw many grey stone pieces. Then he recognized some of the larger ones.

"Is this the dragon?" he asked.

"Not exactly." Mr. Popo answered him. "Well, not yet. Kami must first breathe life into Shenron."

Kami spoke to Goku. "When it was destroyed, I had decided not to bring the dragon back. You see, when I first created the dragon balls, I did so with the intension of giving humanity hope, something to strive for. But soon I learned that the hearts of men are easily corrupted. People began killing one another in their quest for the dragon balls. My pure endeavour had been turned into one of evil. However, you have changed my mind, Goku. I was beginning to believe that all men are greedy and selfish. But you have shown me that there are still people left who are kind of heart."

It took some time before the statue was repaired, for it had been broken to many small pieces. But Mr. Popo repaired it.

"There, all done." He said, putting the statue back under the glass bell.

"Stand back." Kami said. Both stepped back from it. Then Kami pointed up a single finger and concentrated. The finger began to glow, flashing between many colours. Finally he shot the light at the glass bell. At first nothing happened then the statue glowed and moved. It looked up and shot into the sky. There it took on its large form. Then it flew off.

"What happened?" Goku asked puzzled.

"It is seeking out the dragon balls." Kami answered him. "Normally the dragon balls must remain in their stone form for a year before Shenron can be summoned, but I made an exception for your friends. The balls will still spread after a wish has been made, but I have arranged that the four star ball will always seek you out. It will be your duty to protect it."

"Really?" Goku jumped. "Thanks, thanks a lot."

"No, thank you." Kami said with a smile. "Now go on, meet with your friends."

Goku didn't need any persuasion and ran to the edge, jumped off and followed the dragon.

* * *

And that's chapter six. Thanks for reading.

To be honest, this chapter was almost a hard to write as chapter three.

Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack, for Beta-reading, and fixing some awkward phrasing.


	7. Ch 7 Aftermath II

Chapter Seven, the last part before crossing over into the DBZ timeline.

Please enjoy.

* * *

Aftermath II

* * *

Bulma sat on a rock waiting. Goku had left to find Kami, whoever that was, and Korin returned to his tower with a 'Don't worry, Goku will pull through.' Yet she was worried. She had laid the dragon balls on the ground and was looking at them, but not really seeing them. To her guess, Goku left at least an hour ago.

"Oolong, how long has it been?" Puar said

"I don't know. I didn't bring a watch."

"Oh poor Yamcha, I hope Goku hurries up."

"Do you think he is really meeting Kami?"

"He could be, for all we know." Bulma joined them. Sitting here worrying wasn't going to help anyone. "I mean, we have seen the world's most evil person, maybe we get to meet the world's holiest one too."

"Hopefully he won't be as ugly." Oolong jested. "That white cat did say he was Piccolo's other half."

"I think Piccolo became ugly because he was evil." Puar said.

"Ya sure, blame the bad things on the ugly ones, why don't ya. Maybe he went evil because everyone hated him for being ugly."

"But being ugly wouldn't give him powers." Bulma countered. "Being evil might have, and make him ugly in the meantime."

"Or he had them from the beginning. You know, power corrupts and all that." Oolong said back.

"That's a good point." Bulma admitted.

And then it was silent again. That pressing silence. Suddenly she had an idea. She reached into her back and pulled out a capsule.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" she said to herself as she threw it. It puffed and revealed a TV with a battery. She turned it on.

"Good idea." Oolong said, as he took place next to her. Puar floated on the other side.

"This is shit." She said, zapping from some cheap soap. She zapped a bit, until something got her interest. It was a newscast.

"…on the spot. And the bodies of King Chappa, with his students, were found in his Dojo. The police are baffled. There are some witnesses reporting a flying green man with wings, but the credibility of these claims is questionable. And now our reporter life from the WMA stadium: Say Kelly, what's going on there?" The image split, with the man on the left and the right changed to a blonde female standing before the familiar Word Martial Arts Stadium.

"Things have been pretty hectic around here. Just a few hours ago the body of a participant has been recovered and since then nine more in this area alone have been found. Several participants who have been hospitalized have also been found, murdered in their beds. The police are doing raids all over the island hoping to catch the murderers."

"Word is this is happening worldwide."

"There are several rumours flying around here, but nothing has been confirmed yet. What we can say is that a large organization is behind it, striking all over the world nearly at the same time."

"Thank you, Kelly." The right screen turned off, but the left did not move.

"We also have a live report from King Furry's palace. Salmo, what is the word?" the right half was broadcasting again, showing a man standing before a palace.

"The king has not yet given official comments, but he has sent his regrets to the world. Rumors are being exchanged, including a government set up, some army trying to take over, and even alien invasions. And these are just the reasonable ones."

"Yes. It is a tragedy. But it also happened on the Global King Gratitude Celebration. Are there any thoughts about that?"

"Like I said, there are several rumours, but it is most likely a coincidence. Nothing has been declared yet. The king's guard has been doubled and police worldwide are sticking their heads together, but as of now no statements have been made."

"Thank you." The right image vanished and the left took full screen again. "Those were our reporters on the WMA and the King's Palace respectively. We will be right…" he was cut off as a hand appeared from the right, holding a sheet of paper. He took it. "Ah, thank you. There is an update. The amount of victims has been increased to over five hundred, most of them renowned, but all of them Martial Artists. Witnesses are still being questioned." He looked down a bit, before looking in the camera again. "By governmental decree, everyone is advised to remain indoors until further notice." The camera changed angle "In other news, there have been several heavy earthquakes in the 337 forests, near the border of Korin forest."

"Isn't that where we are?" Oolong asked.

"Several jets are on their way to inspect the damage done. It is unusual because the earthquakes were unexpected and there are hardly any in the area. Luckily there are no known residents near the epicentre. And with that, we go to the sports news with John…" the voice was cut off as Bulma turned the device off.

"Wow." Oolong said, just to say something.

"Got that right." Bulma somehow agreed. "Looks like we will have to include some more people in our wish."

"But what about us?" He asked.

"We're not dead, are we?"

"No, I mean when those jets arrive."

"We'll just have to be gone by that time. It's a pretty long flight from anywhere. If Goku gets back soon that is."

* * *

About ten minutes later, Bulma was getting impatient. Then suddenly the sky darkened. A harsh wind blew over the battle site. A bolt of lightning shot over them, through the sky. Then, as if out of the lightning, a yellow light came crashing down. It landed right on top of the dragon balls, which were now pulsing violently. They looked up and came to see the Eternal Dragon towering above the three friends. He looked down.

"I have been awakened." The heavy voice boomed, audible for miles around. "By the grace of Kami, I will grant you one wish before returning to my slumber. Now, name your wish."

"GUYS!" a differed voice came from the sky.

"GOKU!" Bulma screamed at the top of her lungs. "YOU DID IT!"

"Yes." He landed besides her. "I met with Kami and he…"

"Name your wish now!"

"Sheesh, impatient." Oolong commented. Shenron grumbled deeply, making him squeal. "I didn't know he could hear me."

"Shenron!" Goku turned to the sky. "I wish for you to…"

"WAIT!" Bulma said sharply, making Goku stop. She took a deep breath.

"I wish for all people that were killed by Piccolo and his minions to be revived."

Shenron let out another low grumble, making Bulma step back. But then his eyes glowed up.

"It shall be done." At first, it seemed like nothing happened. Then, a yellow light shone above the gravestones. First Vegeta, then Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien. After that, Master Roshi and Master Shen reawakened. Then to the surprise of everyone, Chiaotzu appeared close to the balls. All of them looked confused, but quickly looked at the large dragon towering overhead. The red glow of the eyes wore off.

"Your wish has been granted. I bid you farewell." He was engulfed with light and the dragon balls were lifted into the sky. The light disappeared within the balls. Then six balls spread out, one came crashing down, and the sky instantaneously cleared. Goku picked up the ball which landed at his feet. It shone orange briefly, showing four stars before turning white.

"Tien!" A high voice yelled.

"CHIAOTZU!" He returned, grabbing the smaller fighter unto a hug.

"Was that… the dragon?" Vegeta asked, still trying to comprehend what had happened.

"Yes, it was." Goku said, with a smile. "You see when I came to…" yet again, Bulma interrupted him.

"Let's get going." she said. "This place will be crawling with reporters soon."

"What? Why?"

"Our little battle with Piccolo," some cringed at the name, "Has drawn some attention. Unless we want to be front page news, we better get out of here."

"If those reporters arrive, I'll just blow them up."

"Vegeta." Goku intervened happily. "It's rude to blow people up."

The others stared at the two blankly for a few seconds.

"I think leaving is a good idea." Yamcha broke the silence.

"How? Our ship is broken." Krillin asked him.

"I brought a spare. It's a bit smaller than that one, so some of you will have to fly yourselves." Bulma suggested.

"That's ok." Tien put his hand on his friend.

"Oh, and we'll have to bring the larger pieces of the jet with us."

"Who made you the boss?" Krillin teased her.

"Would you like to go back to being dead?"

"No thanks, once is enough for me."

They laughed out of happiness. Everything worked out in the end.

They gathered the larger pieces and Bulma capsulized them. Then they flew back to Kame House.

* * *

"So, Goku." Krillin asked when they got back. Goku was part of the ones who flew themselves, so he didn't have a chance to ask. "How did you bring us back? I thought the dragon was killed."

"Yeah." Tien agreed. "You wouldn't say anything on the way here."

"I didn't want to tell it twice." Goku leaned back in his chair. "You're right, Shenron was killed. The dragon, that's his name." he added, seeing some confused faces. "Master Roshi sealed Piccolo in a bottle. Then I closed it. Then Korin appeared. He's the master on top of Korin Tower. He said someone should go to Kami and ask him to restore the dragon. So that's what I did." He put his hands behind his back.

"I doubt it was that simple." Vegeta said.

"So you met with Kami? The Kami?" Yamcha asked.

"Sure did." Goku answered.

Bulma suddenly shot up.

"Oh no, did anyone bring the bottle." Bulma panicked

"I picked it up." Goku said. "It's in the desk."

She grabbed it.

"So that is where Piccolo is sealed." Krillin said looking at the bottle. "What should we do with it?"

"Put it in a chest, lock it, put that chest in another chest, lock that as well, and throw it into the sea." Yamcha suggested. Tien, Roshi, Chiaotzu and Krillin nodded.

"Or I could bring it up to Kami's place. No one will accidentally open it there." Goku suggested.

"Good idea, Goku." Bulma said, handing the bottle over to him, who pocketed it.

"So." She said, sitting down. "Care to tell us about yourselves?"

"What do you mean?" Goku looked surprised.

"Like the two of you. I've never met anyone else with tails nor have I heard of giant were-apes." She explained herself.

"Oh." Goku scratched the back of his head. Then he smiled. "We're not from this planet."

Silence ensued for several minutes.

"Are you saying you're an alien?" Krillin finally asked.

"I guess I am."

"That would explain a lot." Bulma said. "But if you're from a different planet, what are you doing here, on earth."

"I was sent here as a baby. This guy called Frieza did…" Goku started.

"Why don't you let me tell the story?" Vegeta suggested, interrupting him. "Unless you want some fragmented tale."

"Ok." Goku sat down again.

"Go ahead." Bulma said.

"We belong to a species called Saiyans. We're from the Planet Vegeta."

"So you're Vegeta, from Planet Vegeta?" Yamcha asked suspiciously. "Right."

"Prince Vegeta, son of King Vegeta. My father named the Planet after himself when he conquered it for our people."

"You conquered a planet." Bulma asked, horror struck.

"Yes, in a war that lasted for years. Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to tell you something here." He said, scowling. When nobody spoke up, he continued.

"As for why Kakarot lives here. It all starts and ends with Frieza. Frieza is the head of a Galactic empire. He found himself in need of capable warriors, so he came down to our planet. The Saiyans are known for their outstanding power, as you may have noticed. He had employed us for many years. But Frieza grew scared of us. With each battle our power would grow. When he thought we were becoming too powerful, he started thinking we might overthrow him. So he blew up our home planet and everyone on it. I was lucky enough to be away on a mission when it happened and Kakarot had been sent away just in time."

The look of terror had now spread to everyone's faces as they listened to his story. But no one interrupted him.

"As far as I know, there are only four of us left. I was with the other two when Kakarot here wished me to this planet."

"But what about the other two?" Bulma asked suddenly.

"It was my presence that drew attention to us. Without me, they will be able to outrun Frieza's claws easier. Nappa is an experienced fighter and Raditz has a good head on his shoulders. If they stick together, they should be able to survive."

"But why would Frieza go as far as blow up the planet?" Yamcha asked, apparently he believed him now.

"And you still didn't tell us why Goku is here." Bulma said

"Another time." He stood up and walked out. Outside he looked at the blue sky. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't have to look to know who it was.

"I don't want your sympathies Kakarot."

Goku, floating to reach his shoulder, didn't answer.

"I never thought I would be telling that again." he cursed. "I could have done something. I spent two years in this place; I could have wished them here. I could have wished Frieza away. I should have done something. But I didn't. I did nothing. I left them to their fate, telling myself they would be fine without me. That I wasn't strong enough to fight Frieza."

"That's not true and you know it." Goku answered. "You trained every day to surpass Frieza. His time will come."

Vegeta said nothing. Goku let go of him and landed next to him.

"Hey Vegeta, want to go train at Kami's place?"

"What for?"

"There is this really strong guy called Mr. Popo. He can teach us lots. How not to waste energy and all that."

"Sure, why not?"

"Hey, everyone!" He yelled to the others, who were now coming outside as well. "We're going to Kami's place. We'll meet at next tournament, ok?"

"Hey, Goku!" Krillin yelled while they flew off. "Make sure to stop by, ok?"

"I will." He said, flying towards the lookout.

"He's not going to show up before the next tournament, is he?" Yamcha said, looking at the two flying off.

"Probably not." Bulma answered.

"Well, let's get back to training then." Krillin joined them.

"Yeah, maybe I'll win the next tournament." Yamcha joked.

"Fat chance." Tien said.

"A man can dream."

Inside, Roshi and Shen were the only ones who had not gone out. Shen calmly sipped from his tea.

"I never thought I would be seeing Piccolo again," he said to Roshi.

"No," he answered, bowing his head. "I guess that really put our rivalry into perspective." He looked outside, where Turtle and Crane were standing side by side. "Perhaps our students can still teach us a thing or two."

"So it would seem."

* * *

"So we decided to leave the bottle up here."

Kami looked surprised. "Good idea. Mr. Popo, would you be so kind as to store this away?"

"Of course, Kami." He walked inside with the bottle. Goku hoped that would be the last he saw of Piccolo.

"Kami?" he drew the elders attention again. "Can Vegeta and I train up here sometimes?"

"Well, the two of you seem to have invited yourselves already." He looked at Vegeta, who was standing with his arms crossed against a tree.

"Please?"

"Kakarot, Saiyans do not beg." The prince scowled.

"Come on Vegeta, it will be great."

"Very well. If Mr. Popo is willing to teach you, you have my permission."

"Yay!" Goku jumped for joy and promptly fell off the platform.

Mr. Popo came out of the building again.

"Is Kami sure this is a good idea."

"To be honest, I'm not sure. That Vegeta carries darkness in his heart. A darkness not unlike my own before I expelled Piccolo from my body. But when Piccolo threatened the earth, he showed up to fight him. He could have gone anywhere, yet he chose to go back and paid for it with his life." Kami watched to two Saiyans mock fight each other. "Whatever happened in his past, perhaps Goku can heal it."

* * *

Three years have passed and once more it is time for the World Martial Arts Tournament. Tien, Chiaotzu, Krillin, Yamcha, Vegeta and Goku had all shown up, though some only at the nick of time. The preliminaries came and went with our friends breezing through them, securing six of the eight spots. The other two were won by a strange woman and some loudmouth with an afro.

"And so the Tournament begins." The announcer announced, after everyone had drawn lots. "First match; Tien vs. Yamcha. Second; Goku against Miss Anonymous. Thirdly; Chiaotzu up against the Vegetable." Vegeta grumbled, while the others laughed. "And lastly, Krillin vs. Mark."

* * *

And thus the first match came and went. Yamcha had fought valiantly, but could not match up against Tien's superior power.

Goku fought against Miss Anonymous, who, to everyone's surprise, turned out to be Chichi. She had come to uphold Goku's promise to marry her. And was upset when Goku said he didn't remember. Of course he didn't recognize her either. And to everyone's greater surprise, he asked her hand in marriage anyway.

Then it was Vegeta's and Chiaotzu's turn. The match did not last long since Vegeta simply threw the smaller fighter out of bounds.

Krillin had an easy win as well, though he was taking pity on his opponent. He had seen a woman with azure eyes cheer on him and decided to take him out in a less humiliating way.

In the first semi-finals, Goku fought with Tien. Though it looked like Tien was winning, Goku revealed to be holding back greatly. The match was over soon after that.

But in the second one, Krillin ended up in the same way as Chiaotzu.

Then the finals: Goku vs. Vegeta. They had started slowly, as to give the crowd a show, but their Saiyan instincts quickly took over and soon they were up in the sky, trading punches like there was no tomorrow. Despite Vegeta slight advantage in power, Goku managed to scrap out a victory.

* * *

"To Goku's victory!" Krillin proposed a toast. Everyone raised their glasses. Even the two Saiyans found enough time to toast along.

After the Tournament, Goku decided he was hungry, so everyone went to eat together at a local restaurant.

"That was a real outstanding battle." Yamcha said, still impressed by the younger warrior.

"Yeah, for a second there I thought Vegeta had me." Goku said back.

"I let you win." The shorter Saiyan defended himself.

"Not willingly." Goku said back.

"You two just finished fighting, are you really going to start again?" Chichi said, glaring at Vegeta.

"Must be a Saiyan thing." Krillin brushed it off, trying to sneak some food off of Vegeta's plate.

"It is. Hands off or you lose one." Vegeta commented.

"Sane thing?" Chichi was confused.

"Saiyan." Yamcha corrected her. Then he looked at Goku. "Wait, you didn't tell her yet?'

"Igh hahnth has he hine yes." Goku said, spaghetti hanging from his mouth.

"Try saying that without your mouth full." Krillin suggested. Goku slurped the food in.

"Disgusting." Shen said.

"I said I haven't had the time yet."

"You have now. Better say it now before you marry." Yamcha said, leaning back in his chair.

"Ok, what are you talking about?" Chichi stood up. "Tell me what?"

"Chichi, sit down." Goku started. She did. "I may have, kind of, might been, a little bit, not born on this planet." Chichi stared blankly at him.

"You're not human?" She repeated slowly. Vegeta decided to interrupt. He was done eating anyway. "We are Saiyans from planet Vegeta!"

"Saiyan huh?" she turned her head a bit. "Ok."

"Wait, you're ok with it?" Bulma nearly screamed.

"Well, I already figured he wasn't human, with his strength, tail, and the amount he eats. Bedsides, I'm not going to marry him for where he came from."

"Good point." Bulma sat down again, dumbfounded.

"Now that that's over with, what are you going to do now?" Oolong asked Tien.

"Train, mostly." He looked at Goku. "I have a lot of catching up to do."

"I'm with Tien." Yamcha said. "I'm not going to let some alien take the title of World Strongest."

"Aliens are stealing our titles." Krillin said in a mock panic.

"I'm going back to the lookout. And Kakarot is coming with me."

"Who me? No way." He scooped up Chichi and flew off. "I'm getting married, this is the good life."

"Wait, if you're going, then who's paying?" Roshi yelled after them.

Krillin nudged Vegeta with his elbow. "You've been left behind. Welcome to the club."

"Nonsense." Vegeta said, still looking to where Goku flew of. "I'm the only one who can keep up with him." 'And he with me.' He mentally added, though he would never admit it. He stretched his tail, freaking out some waitresses.

"So, now that Goku is gone, what will you do now?" Bulma said, leaning in closer.

"I'll manage without him."

"Where do you live anyway?" He looked at her, not understanding.

"On this planet." He eventually answered.

"Yes, we figured that." Bulma answered sarcastically. "I meant, where on the planet?"

"Anywhere." Vegeta said, annoyed.

"You don't have a home?" Yamcha joined in. "Then where did you stay these last years?"

"Wherever I happened to be. Kakarot and I mostly stayed either in a cave or up on the Lookout."

"And now Goku's gone." Yamcha teased him.

"Vegeta." Bulma called him again. "Why don't you crash at my place for a while? I've got plenty of room."

"Bulma, you can't just invite some stranger."

"He's not a stranger. Besides I invited you all these years ago."

Vegeta leaned back, listening to the two humans bickering. Perhaps this life would not be that bad.

* * *

That concludes this part of the story. Thanks for reading, and please leave me a review.

I'm taking a small break from uploading, so I can write ahead a little and get my story straight. Writing is harder than I thought, but it's also more fun than I thought.

Thanks for the support, and as usual, Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack.


	8. Ch 8 New Beginnings

AN:

I'm finely putting the finishing touches on the story, so I'm uploading again.

I will also update the first three chapters soon.

But before we head back to our main characters, we'll visit some old friends first.

Well then, without further ado, Chapter 8

* * *

Several years later, somewhere in space.

He watched as stars flashed by. His stomach protested, but he had no choice but to ignore it. He was no longer keeping count on how long it has been. All that mattered was getting to the next planet. And then the one after that. And after that.

He heard footsteps behind him.

"Still up? Isn't it time to switch yet?" A voice cut through the silence.

"What's the point? It's not like either of us are actually needed until we arrive."

The other one did not speak, but took place next to him. He too let his eyes wander aimlessly over the stars.

"I never thought it would come this far." The second stated after a few minutes.

"You never expected to survive this long." He was corrected.

"Same difference." He sighed. "How long until we arrive?"

"Not for a few more standard days, but I haven't checked."

"And Frieza's goons?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Same story as the last few times. Dammed." He didn't sound angry, just sad and tired.

Yet the first man did not look away from the window. Then he turned to his companion.

"What if Frieza find us? Then what?" he looked away. "I'm out of ideas. We got lucky last time, but we are heavily outsourced. We can't keep this pace up."

"We have to land." The other stated firmly. "We're nearly out of food. Water is running out soon as well."

"I know. None of us have cleaned ourselves in months."

"Not to mention the pills." The second turned to him. "I'm glad you and Nappa started taking them when you did, but we really can't keep going. We have to restock, and soon."

"Twelve."

"What?"

"Twelve dammed pills left. If only this ship had a second status pod."

"Be glad there was one in the first place. We would have ran out of food a long time ago."

A large howl echoed trough the chambers. "Stop talking about food, would you?" he said harshly.

"Sorry." The second man didn't pressure. He knew the ration pills did nothing against hunger. And with as long as the Saiyan went without food, the constant gnawing of his stomach would be maddening indeed.

Someone else entered the room. The second man turned and looked at the newcomer.

"Raditz, Zarbon." He started. "We have bad news. Ships belonging to Frieza's empire have been seen around the planet."

Raditz cursed audibly. The newcomer reeled back. Zarbon turned his back on him.

"We have to stop, there is no other choice." He said to Raditz.

"Maybe we can fight." Raditz answered suddenly.

"What?"

"Fight Frieza. Nappa and I have became a lot stronger. If we lure the bastard under the full moon, can't the three of us fight him?"

Zarbon sighed. "No, we can not."

"You don't know the power we posses when transformed."

"I have a wild guess. And even if you…" he stopped mid sentence.

"Even if I what?" Raditz rounded up on him.

"Listen, I didn't want to tell you this before." Zarbon looked away. "Even if we can match Frieza now, we still can't win."

"And why not?"

"Because Frieza can transform as well."

Raditz was silent for a few moments, trying to comprehend the meaning of these words.

"He can… transform?"

"Yes." Was the short answer.

"And how do you know that?"

Zarbon looked out at the stars again. "It was a long time ago." He started. "Dodoria and I went with him to a new planet. Apparently his brother had beaten us to it."

"His brother, Cooler?"

Zarbon nodded. "Of course, Frieza was not too happy. Then Cooler made a remark at him, said something about Frieza still being in his weaker form. Since Cooler looked quite differed from him, I concluded Frieza could transform into something even more powerful."

"Great, just what we needed." Raditz started pacing around. Then he let himself fall over.

"It's useless, were never going to escape his grasp. Frieza is everywhere."

"No its not, we just have to find the right place!" Zarbon said to him. "Think! Is there any place we have overlooked? Anyone you know? Another Saiyan even? Like that Turles guy?"

"No." Raditz answered dully. "Without Vegeta it's just me and Nappa. And perhaps my…" his eyes shot open. "KAKAROT!" he shouted.

"Kawho?"

"Kakarot, my little brother. He was sent to exterminate some planet far away just before Frieza blew up the planet. I think he got off in time."

"Do you know the coordinates?"

"No, but I bet I could find it on one of Frieza's ships." He got up.

"Do you think he will be still alive?"

"Probably, he was sent as a baby, so the natives could not be that powerful."

"It's worth a gamble then. It's not like we have a better plan."

"Best case, the planet is outside of Frieza's range, and he is alive on it. Worst case? Outrunning Frieza for some time, since he won't be guessing where we're going."

"That's the plan then?" Zarbon looked at the Saiyan. At first he had been reluctant to take orders from him, but Raditz had somehow kept all of them alive, and away from Frieza.

"First we have to resupply, then we'll talk." Raditz walked out the door, no doubt towards the control chamber.

"Finally." Zarbon said to himself. "He has been moping around for far too long."

Now that he was left alone, he let his thoughts run freely. Naturally, they went back to Frieza, the tyrant he once served. But when Frieza had burdened him with the impossible task of finding Vegeta, Zarbon found that he valued his life more than his honour, and fled. Especially after word reached his ears that Raditz and Nappa had killed Dodoria, and got away. Cui had been sent to retrieve them at all costs, and when the purple alien came back empty-handed, Frieza killed him on the spot. Zarbon knew his life was forfeit as well.

After a long time of travelling alone, he came across a ship of traitors from Frieza's army. Naturally, they thought that Zarbon had came to kill them. It was there that he met up with the two Saiyans. Apparently, Raditz had commandeered the transport vessel some time ago. At first, the crew was forced into cooperation since Nappa killed the captain, but they found Raditz to be a much more lenient captain. Mostly because he didn't kill for failure.

After explaining himself and telling them he had been away for too long, that he would still be killed even if he showed up with Vegeta, they let him tag along.

The ship was rather large, with the crew now counting some thirty heads. The former vice captain, now the decoy captain, proved to be an excellent cover. They used some made up excuse to land on a planet under Frieza's or Cooler's control, so they could restock, but eventually they were found out, and had to flee for their lives. Despite it being known as a traitor's ship, they did not abandon it. It was almost as fast as most pods, granted at a large fuel cost, and the crew was a real help as well. After training with the Saiyans and later Zarbon, they had became much stronger, now strong enough to take on four times their number in Frieza's lackeys. And that's a proven fact, the last time they stopped to resupply, they were ambushed. Nappa and Raditz had jumped in as well, but they were outnumbered six to one, yet had not lost a single man.

Zarbon grinned, thinking of what Frieza would think of that. The average soldier did not dare rise in power too much, for he would be sent away to much more dangerous missions, and most likely his death. The dammed lizard was so scared of anyone rising even a little above the average. Zarbon had not told Frieza he could transform either, and after the Saiyan genocide, he believed that was a good idea. An entire species wiped out, because of a local legend. Not that his own planet fared much better.

He focused his thoughts, concentrating on the battle to come. For there would be one, in order to get food and water, not to mention information from one of the ships.

And then, perhaps, the Saiyan might be alive. Perhaps they could elude Frieza's grasp. Build a new home, a new future.

Perhaps…

* * *

Close to Frieza Planet 239, a transport ship had located itself near a different planet in its solar system. It had attached itself to one of the asteroids orbiting it.

"One hundred and twenty." Nappa mouthed.

"Yes." Raditz said. "Even if we surprise him somehow in our Ozaru forms, there will still be a good chance that he will kill us single-handedly."

"He knew we were coming." Zarbon entered the room. "At least it isn't Frieza himself."

"Any news?" Raditz asked him without turning.

"You were right, long range scanners all over the place. Not to mention the sheer amount of soldiers posted."

"And captain Ginyu." Raditz added irritated.

"Looks like your paranoia worked out for us. Had we flown straight in, we would have landed in an ambush."

"Small scoop." Raditz reached to his scouter. "Enno, anything?"

"Just a small message from Ginyu to Frieza's ship, asking whether they were sure we would arrive."

Raditz turned the device off. "He's getting impatient."

"Maybe we can outlast him." Nappa suggested.

"If we had the resources to outlast them, we could have gone to a different planet. We don't, so we're stuck." Raditz said harshly. "Besides, if we're expected here, then you can count on the nearby planets being ready for us as well. Frieza seems to be less tolerant of failure lately."

"Really?" Nappa mock asked. "You don't suppose it would have anything to do with our escape?"

Raditz shot a glare at his fellow Saiyan, but then all three scouters started transmitting.

"Raditz, Zarbon, Nappa." Enno's sounded excited. "Listen to this."

The sound changed, and a bit of static could be heard. But the voices were loud and clear.

"… coming in, and requesting clearance." A voice said. Then it was silent "A transport ship came in a few minutes ago." Enno explained, just before another voice answered. "Denied. The planet is in lockdown. Remain position and prepare to be boarded."

Raditz was no longer listening. He ran out the room, towards the launching bay. The other two followed. He reached for his scouter again.

"Enno, what's the range of the planets scanners?"

"Way ahead of you." The answer came. "At the distance their on, at least six times your size, and that's only if you cover yourself with gold. The ship that's going to board them though. They will have power scouters, so you will have to move fast."

"Average power expected?"

"Frieza's grunts, and low ones at that."

"Good." Raditz said, turning the scouter off.

"What was that about?" Nappa asked him, running alongside.

"We're in luck, a transport ship ripe for the plucking." Zarbon answered for him.

"But we have a ship."

"Their ship will have the supplies we need, and now that there will be soldiers on it as well, there will be a chance to find out where my brother was sent." Raditz explained.

"I see, no need to land on the planet anymore?"

"If everything goes according to plan, no."

"And what is the plan?"

"Working on it. For now it is 'grab ship, get information, fly ship back and get all the supplies.' Or perhaps getting information while flying back."

"How about we get on it first?" Zarbon asked him.

"Yes, we have a couple of space suits, and a shuttle. The shuttle is too big to make it all the way, thus that's where the suits come in."

"As good a plan as any." Nappa agreed, now having arrived at the launching bay. From the other end, a few aliens came running in, carrying some suits.

"Enno said you would need these." They said, before going back.

"Real Kai-send, that Enno." Zarbon complemented the former vice-captain.

While starting up the shuttle, Enno contacted them again. "Once you're out there, I'm turning off communications. I'm sorry, but you will be on your own until you sent the all clear."

"Will do." Raditz answered, while Zarbon flied the shuttle away.

* * *

They left the shuttle behind and were flying through empty space. The ship they were flying towards was still nowhere to be seen, and the shuttle behind them had faded way as well. They had to fly in a single direction, otherwise they would get lost. Of course, they could activate the suits inbuilt communication devices, but in their current situation, letting anyone know they were there would be nothing short of suicide.

 _'We should have seen it by now.'_ The thought crept into Raditz's head. Getting lost would turn their survival chances into single digits. Though the enemy could not hurt them directly, their suits were not as strong, and they need the oxygen. Nervously, Raditz looked at the star nearby. She was close enough to be seen with the naked eye, yet her planet, which should be to his right, was too far to be seen. Then a thought hit Raditz. He turned, and looked in the opposite direction. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness. Then a small spark caught his eye. A ship. The ship. He prodded Nappa, who flew next to him, and pointed upwards. Nappa turned, his eyes following in the pointed direction. Then he elbowed Zarbon, who looked as well. As of one mind, they changed directions. Now that they know where it was, getting there was a piece of cake.

* * *

"Sir, there is a large power approaching us."

"How close."

"Within shield range."

"WHAT? How could it have gotten this far without the sensors picking it up?"

"It's below minimum surface sir. We only know because of the high power."

"How high?"

"It's about… no there are three of them. One 4200, one 8900 and one 31000."

"Thirty thousand?"

"Yes sir"

"Have they…" But the question couldn't be finished, as at that precise moment, a huge tremor shook the ship.

* * *

Not bothering with formalities, Nappa shot an energy blast straight into the hull of the military ship, tearing it open. The three flew inside, and arrived in some sort of hallway. There was a powerful air current towards the hole they just came into. To their left was a metal wall rapidly descending. Nappa put his shoulders underneath it, and held it up long enough for the other two to fly underneath it. He let go, and landed next to them. The frame slammed shut behind them. The air current was gone.

Zarbon took his helmet off, inhaling fresh air. The Saiyans followed suit.

"How did you know we had to go up?" Nappa asked the other Saiyan.

"I noticed that the star was a bit higher than it was when we started." Raditz answered, trying to get out of his suit, and settling on tearing it apart.

"The star's gravity field. I should have known. It was too small to feel but it drew us towards it, curving our path slightly." Zarbon explained.

"We made it, that's what counts." Raditz said.

"So, now what?" Nappa asked.

"Now we take the ship."

"You think they know we're here?"

"If that didn't warm them." Raditz grinned and pointed over his shoulder, towards the shutter.

"Let's not wait to find out." Zarbon cut them short. They agreed, and headed down the hallway. After a few corners, and no doors, there were some men with energy blasters standing in line, obviously trying to block the way. Before a word was said, Nappa fired a blast, killing them on the spot.

"How rude." Zarbon commented while running over the scorched remains.

"You want pretty, or effective?" Nappa argued. "I thought we were in a hurry."

"We could have asked them." Zarbon bit back.

"That would take too long." Raditz added in. "The alarms have gone off already, and I expect some reinforcements in a few minutes."

"Better deal with it now then." Zarbon turned his scouter on, and searched for a concentration, hoping it would be the bridge. He found something. He blasted a hole in the ceiling, and flew into it. The other followed. Several floors higher, they arrived at a large room, with many soldiers. Behind them was an open airlock, and behind that, was the transport ship. Not wasting time, they flew trough the soldiers, not even bothering with killing. Once in the other side Raditz slammed on a distress button close to the door. The locks slammed closed immediately, but not before Zarbon threw a large energy ball underneath it. They could see the military craft drifting away a bit, before a large blast blew it up from the inside. The force of it caused the ship they were on to tremble.

"Alrigth." Raditz started. "You two clear out the ship, and gather the goods here. I'll head towards the bridge to fly this thing back to our ship." With that, they separated.

-Line Break-

Their little action did not go unnoticed, especially not the hijacking. Soon several attack pods were flying towards them, but Raditz had figured out how to fly the thing, and the others were stacking their loot next to the docking airlock. Too soon they arrived at their own ship.

Raditz's eyes went rapidly over the files. 'It has to be in here somewhere.' It had taken him some time to find the right information, but now he was looking over entries of thousands of launches. 'There!' He sent it files to his scouter, and went to the other working station. He entered a few commands, before turning. A voice could be heard from one of the others, trying to contact the now dead crew. 'That's my cue.' He pressed his scouter. "Nappa, Zarbon, we're leaving." "Enno." He went to a different channel. "Dock it."

"Affirmative." The answer came, and the ship detached from the asteroid, and flew over.

Raditz approved of every request their ship sent to him, and set the docking station to be the one where the military ship was blown off from. Then he ran off.

The ship turned and connected with the other with the right station. Raditz arrived there just in time to see Nappa pushing the last few large boxes trough it.

"You found it then?" he asked.

"Yes." Raditz answered. He spoke into his scouter. "Enno, we're done. Detach it."

Without answer, the lock behind them slammed shut, and pushed the other ship away. Instead of floating there, the other ship took off.

"That will distract them." Raditz explained.

"So, you found where your brother was sent?" Zarbon asked, coming from around the corner.

"Yes, on a backwards planet far into the frontier."

* * *

The end of this chapter. I hope you enyoyed reading it as much as did writing it. please review, so i can improve future chapters.

And dont worry, the next few chapters will be about the two other Saiyans.

Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack, for beta-reading this and the next chapter.


	9. Ch 9 Invasion I

AN: I had to rewrite this chapter several times before it was readable.

* * *

Ch 9 Invasion I

* * *

It had been nine years since the defeat of King Piccolo, and six since Goku's marriage.

The earth has been a peaceful place during that time. But that peace was about to be shattered.

* * *

He raised his head, trying to follow his opponent. He merely got a glimpse of a fist flying towards him when he raised his arms in defence. Too late, the punch flew over his block and hit him squarely in the face. He was thrown backwards, against one of his allies. He pushed up, wiping his long, black hair out of his face. His other ally landed next to him, standing still for a moment then stretching out a finger. "DODON!" The word echoed over the platform as the beam shot out towards their opponent.

Alas, the man had waited too long, as their opponent dodged by a hairs width and held both hands by the right hip. He and his two allies followed the example.

"KA!" Four warriors cried out simultaneously.

"ME!" Powers rose as energy was concentrated.

"HA!" Blue light began to glow between the hands.

"ME!" The light lit up brightly, and the scenery was engulfed in blue light, shadows dancing over the white tiles.

"HAAAAAA!" Four beams were released simultaneously, three from the platform, against one from the sky. The beams clashed midway, before the combined strength of the three overcame the one. It was pushed backwards, and the one behind it moved sideways to avoid being hit.

He launched himself forward, ready to take his opponent head on. His smaller ally followed him, while the other flew up. He struck out with his right arm, but his fist struck empty space, as his opponent had seen it coming and pushed it sideways with the right hand. His ally kicked with the right in a large sweeping motion and struck against the raised forearm of their opponent. He didn't wait for the man to recover and grabbed the arm with his left hand, his right reaching out for his opponent's throat. The man simply flew backwards, and made him let go.

The second ally dropped from the sky, right behind his opponent. They had him trapped between them. They charged together, he kicked high with his right, as the smaller ally to his right went below the kick and flew forward with him and reached out with a left hook. The one behind flew in as well, spinning and kicking out with a high roundhouse kick. The two kicks met each other over their opponent's head, but the punch hit in the chest, blowing the man backwards.

The one behind drew in his right leg and struck out his left, kicking the man back between them. The small one kicked, and missed. The man shot up from between them and floated upside down above, an energy blast prepared in each hand.

He drew his forearm above his face, ready to take the blast head on. But it never came. They struck the other two instead, crashing them into the platform. He fired a blast himself, but his opponent let it pass over his back and flew down, spinning and lashing out with the heel at the last moment, sending the last of the three into the platform as well.

He picked himself up, the three of them breathing hard, and saw his opponent land before them, trademark smile on the face.

"Very good." A voice sounded from the sidelines. "Mr. Popo is very impressed."

"Yes," a second agreed. "The three of you are making remarkable progress."

"It doesn't feel like that." The smaller one said as he let himself fall backwards again.

"Don't be disheartened." The three-eyed warrior said. "Goku makes it look easy."

"If you call that 'making it look easy', I'd hate to see that hard parts."

"Come on, Krillin, you nearly had me." Goku said back.

"Just like we nearly had you last time? And the time before that? And every single time so far." Krillin sat up again. "Damned, Goku, can't you just let us win for once, just to boost our morale or something?"

"That wouldn't feel like a real win, now would it?" Goku said back, stretching out and unfolding his tail from his hips.

Yamcha wiped off his orange clothes and turned to the other warrior. "Tien, why didn't Chiaotzu show up?"

"He didn't feel well," the other said back. "In fact, I'm starting to suspect he's feeling a bit outclassed. Hand to hand combat has never been his strong point."

"But his psychic powers are not to be messed with. Especially that paralyzing thing he does." Yamcha tried to reason.

"But those powers are of little use in a sparring match, are they?" Tien shot him down.

"I guess so." The Turtle warrior shrugged before turning away.

"Hey, Yamcha." Said man looked up at Krillin. "I'm heading back to Kame house, you coming?"

Tien turned. "Same time tomorrow?" After three times 'Sure, later' everyone took off. Goku, Yamcha, and Krillin in one direction and Tien in another.

Krillin turned to Goku. "You should bring Gohan over sometime. I'm sure he'll love it."

"I don't know if Chichi will let me, she has been feeling a lot more protective lately."

"Just bring her along as well." Yamcha suggested. "Hey, we could ask Bulma to come over as well. We could have a little reunion."

"Just call me when." Goku said. "Hey, I promised Vegeta I'd spar with him in the afternoon. I'll see you later." With that, Goku blasted off.

The two Turtle Martial Artists remained flying side by side.

"Vegeta." Yamcha remarked, with a small distaste in his voice. "I don't see why Goku is so friendly with him."

"You're just sore because he stole Bulma away from you." Krillin teased him.

"No, I'm not!" Yamcha remarked a little too strongly. "Ok, maybe a little. But the guy is just an arrogant prick."

"Oh, he's not so bad. Once you get past the attitude that is." He laughed.

"And the pride." Yamcha added.

"That smug face of his."

"His rudeness."

"Ok, maybe he is that bad." The two men laughed. "But Goku seems to like him."

* * *

Goku soared through the sky. He followed Vegeta's energy signature and soon arrived at the usual training grounds, where he found Vegeta waiting for him. He landed.

"You're late." Vegeta said as a greeting, not rising of from the rock upon which he sat.

"Training with the others lasted a little longer than I expected." Goku made his excuse.

"I don't see why you would spend your time training those weaklings." The Prince told him once more.

"Hey, I was once one of those weaklings too you know." Goku defended himself.

"You're a Saiyan warrior, Kakarot. Battle is in your blood." Vegeta stood up and flared his energy, signalling that the small talk was over. Then he lifted off, Goku following his example.

* * *

Shattered stone littered the field. Many Saiyan shaped holes could be spotted. The sky was a flawless blue; all clouds had been driven away by the impacts. The two sat back to back on top of a large boulder, waiting to recover enough energy to fly home. Goku's shirt had been completely destroyed and Vegeta got many holes in his blue spandex.

Goku decided to break the silence. "Bulma passed by yesterday."

"Hn." Was all he got.

"She brought Trunks along." Goku continued.

"Hn!" A little more forceful this time.

"He's a good kid." Goku ignored it.

"HN!" Annoyed now.

"Have you ever gone over to see him?" Goku fired the reason he started..

"Yes Kakarot! I have!" He stood up, his energy erratic.

"Then why did you leave?" Goku asked in a casual tone.

"Did the woman pester you into talking to me?" Vegeta tried to change the subject.

"Vegeta!" Goku stood up as well. "We spent eleven years together. I know something is bothering you."

A low grumble was heard. The wind blew gently over the torn battlefield before them, as the two men stood side by side motionless.

"It was never supposed to be born." Vegeta started suddenly, in a low voice. He turned to look at his companion. "We're warriors Kakarot, the last of our kind. We're not supposed to be polluting our bloodline."

"Last time I checked, there are no Saiyan women left. That means the Saiyan race will die with us. Is that what you want?" Goku looked him straight in the eye.

"You wouldn't understand." He turned back, shaking his head.

"Try me." Goku crossed his arms.

"You've never seen our home planet. Our ancestral pride. Our culture. You've never known the kinship among true Saiyan warriors. We're not meant to be wasting our lives with these inferior beings, let alone mate with them."

"Perhaps, but I doubt wiping out entire civilization was the way our ancestors meant for us to live."

"It's still better that training some Humans." He spat out the last word.

"Just because they're Humans doesn't mean that they're weak." Goku tried to reason.

"Hn."

"Before you came here, didn't you have twice the power of Nappa? And he was supposed to be one of the strongest."

"Nappa was born an elite, but he was never one of the strongest. He only boasted he was."

"Still, I think Krillin, Tien and Yamcha are reaching the level you were on, making them stronger than an average Saiyan."

"I doubt that!"

"They've came a long way since our battle with Piccolo. We all have. They may not have our inborn drive to fight, but they're becoming really strong now."

"Fine. I'll head by sometime and see for myself." The prince took off, and headed towards Mt. Paotzu. Goku followed him.

The two flew in silence for some time, until Goku decided to break it again.

"The next full moon is two nights from now, isn't it?"

"Nh." He grunted in agreement, wondering.

"Would you mind if I brought Gohan along? It's past time he learned."

"Something for you to say, you still don't even remember anything."

"But I'm only destroying almost everything in sight, so it's improvement."

"If you can call that improvement. We've been at this ever since the geezer restored the moon nine years ago."

* * *

Several days later.

A gentle wind blew down over the shattered rocks. An eerie silence hung over the battlefield.

"Goku, you're up." Krillin glanced over to his old friend.

"I have a little surprise." Goku let a small grin take hold of his face.

"Goku, don't you dare." Tien glared at the Saiyan, guessing what would be coming.

"Come on Goku, knock him out." Yamcha cheered.

"Go for it." Chiaotzu egged him on.

"Here you go." Goku threw it down. "Ace, you're out."

Tien threw down his hand. "Not again."

"Relax hotshot, there can only be one winner." Yamcha tried to smooth him over.

"That'll be me." Krillin claimed, reaching over to pick a card from Goku.

"You wish." Goku returned.

"You know," Yamcha remarked, watching Krillin's face turn to despair from the card he picked. "For someone who wags his tail whenever he gets a good hand, Goku's pretty good."

"There is no countering dumb luck." Tien said, before turning to Krillin. "You do realize Chiaotzu is psychic?"

"That doesn't make him invincible." He said, drawing a card from said mime. Chiaotzu laughed as Krillin dropped his cards. "Out again, and I was doing so well."

Goku and Chiaotzu drew three cards each from the stack. Goku promptly shot out his tail, and curled it the other way around his waist. Chiaotzu threw down his cards.

"Another Joker, go figure." He complained.

"That means I win." Goku threw his cards away in his usual carefree manner.

"Break's over." Tien decrared as he stood up, while Yamcha pocketed the cards.

Everyone else went airborne, but instead of flying, Goku remained still.

"You feel that?" Goku asked, looking up. The other four turned to the sky, but couldn't find anything.

"This one is definitely too far away to be flying." He continued. "Either someone figured out we're here, or this planet just got on Frieza's list."

"What are you talking about?" Krillin asked him, eyes also on the sky, but he didn't find anything.

"There is a high power floating above the earth." Goku answered. The other let themselves fall from the sky and landed close to him.

"What's going on?" Chiaotzu asked Tien.

"I don't know, but to get him riled up like this, it must be serious." Tien didn't like where this was going.

"Someone's coming." Goku warned the others. And true enough, a white ship was rapidly descending. It was sphere shaped, but larger than the attack pods Vegeta described. It came to a halt just above the ground. Then it opened, revealing a large man. He wore armour, not unlike Vegeta wore when he was wished to earth, and had long, raven black hair which reached past his back. The newcomer lifted himself off a bit and slowly levitated towards the warriors.

"Well, well, well." He said, with a grin, his eyes locked on Goku. "Am I interrupting something?" He set down in front of them.

"Who are you?" Goku asked sharply.

"So we meet at last." The man said, ignoring the question. "You've grown up, but I recognize you, Kakarot. You're the splitting image of our esteemed father."

"Kakarot?" Krillin looked at Goku. "Isn't that…" Goku held out his hand, silencing him.

"So you know who I am, yet I do not know you." He looked at the stranger. Then a light went off in the back of his head. "Wait, our father? Would you be, Raditz?"

"You know him?" Yamcha nearly screamed in Goku's ear.

"That's right, so you do remember." Raditz let his scouter go over the group. "What are you doing with these pathetic weaklings? Why didn't you carry out your orders?"

"You mean my orders to exterminate all life on this planet?" Goku said with a small smile. "I felt free to ignore them." He crossed his arms before his chest. "Would you mind telling me why you're here?" He let his tail swing freely from his back. The ones behind him followed his example, save for the tail of course.

"I found myself in need of a place to stay and an extra pair of hands. I believed you could help with both." He walked forward. "Your power is pathetic, but that's nothing that some training won't fix."

"Listen, mister." Krillin stepped forward. "I don't know who you think you are, but you obviously got the wrong guy." He made a waving motion with his hand. "Shoo. Shoo. I think you've been dipping in the eggnog too much. Allow me to escort you out of the area."

Before anyone could warm him, a tail leashed out, sending Krillin flying, skipping a few times on the ground, before crashing into a nearby boulder. The monk flew up soon after.

"That was unnecessary." Goku said while Krillin was flying back, massaging his jaw.

"I'll be the judge of that." Raditz was becoming agitated. Goku simply smiled to him, confusing him, and pissing him off even more.

"Broke from Frieza, haven't you?" The remark caught him off guard.

"Well, yes." Raditz said, perplexed by the fact that his brother even knew about Frieza.

"I suppose Frieza didn't take the disappearance too well." Goku continued.

"No." Raditz said, regaining his posture. "He ordered me and Nappa to be installed with the S7 Chip."

"S7 chip?" Goku tilted his head slightly. Vegeta never said anything about chips.

"You don't want to know." Raditz waved his hand in a dismissive manner. He turned, and flew back to his pod. "Me and my crew are staying here for a while to resupply and regain our breath. You have until then to make up your mind." He said over his shoulder.

"What if I say no?" Goku asked daringly.

"That would be a stupid thing to do." The pod closed, and flew back into the sky.

Everyone was frozen for a few moments, processing what just happened. Then Goku lifted himself into the sky.

"I better go find Vegeta."

* * *

"Then he flew off." Goku recalled the story to the prince. He found himself upon a high mountain, overlooking a forest.

"So, he remembered you at last." Vegeta looked towards the sky. "Did he say anything about me, or Nappa?"

"Nothing about you, but he did mention Nappa, and said something about an S7 chip."

"I see." The answer came. "S7, that's a bit drastic." He added mindlessly.

"So what is this S7 thing?" he wanted to know.

"The S7 is a tracer, surveillance, communicator and remote torture device all rolled into one." Vegeta told him coldly. "Frieza has most of his soldiers be implanted with a surveillance chip, to make sure we don't run off on our own." He raised his hand to his neck. "I think mine was left behind when you wished me here, but the other two were not that lucky."

Silence. They let their eyes wander over the scene before them.

"They came at last." Vegeta said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Expecting trouble?" Goku raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, we have my former team mates to contend with." He commented while taking off, Goku in tow, towards Mt. Paotzu.

"Do you have a plan?" He asked when he caught up, which wasn't so hard since both of them were suppressing their powers.

"First, we go and see whether or not they are trustworthy. After that, who knows?"

-Line Break-

"Sir?"

"Not yet. Wait until they separate."

* * *

Getting back to Goku's place was the easy part. Apparently Raditz had tracked the two of them, and soon after Goku and Vegeta arrived, the large transport vessel set down not too far from the house, landing in an open field.

Chichi wasn't thrilled to hear Goku's brother had come to earth. She complained that it would endanger their son and mess up his studies. Their discussion was stopped when the two Saiyans felt three powers heading their way.

"Who do you suppose the third one is?" Goku asked the prince. They were standing before the house, waiting.

Vegeta huffed. "Could be Cui for all we know." He was leaning against a tree, sideways into the shadow.

Three pair of feet set down just before Goku, who was standing out in the open.

"Been expecting us, haven't you?" Raditz said, looking at Goku. None of the three had noticed Vegeta to their left yet, and said Prince decided to observe.

"Why yes, actually." Goku said back, smiling.

"So that's Kakarot?" Nappa said, letting his scouter calculate. "Your power is pathetic."

Goku let the comment slide. Raditz spoke up again. "We landed nearby because the area is secluded, making restocking that much easier for us." He gestured to the two behind him. "But these two insisted on meeting you."

"Since you will be joining us, we might as well get to know you." Zarbon added.

"And what of I don't want to join." Goku argued.

"We have ways of… persuading you." Nappa added darkly.

Raditz held his hand in front of him, telling Nappa to back down. "Like I said before, we could use an extra pair of hands."

"You have stronger people back on your ship, what do you need me for?" Koku could sense the people back, and since he suppressed his power, these three couldn't know he was actually stronger.

Raditz blinked a few times. 'How does he know?'

"You're right, we don't." Nappa said, holding up a glowing hand. "With your puny power, you would only hold us back.

"That's rich coming from you." Vegeta decided he heard enough, and stepped out of the shadow with a smirk.

"And who…" Raditz words seemed to become stuck in his throat the moment he laid eyes on his prince. "Prince Vegeta, what are you doing here?" he nearly stuttered.

"Due to circumstances, I live here." He answered slyly. "Looks like little Zarbon has joined the gang as well." he walked closer in a carefree manner.

Raditz clenched his fist. "Why did you leave?" he didn't as much as ask as demand. "How did you leave, and why didn't you take us with you."

"I had no choice in the matter." Vegeta dismissed him.

"Of course you didn't, that's why you left me and Nappa to rot!" They glared at each other, neither Saiyan willing to back down.

"And what were you doing here?" Nappa suddenly asked the prince. He let his scouter calculate Vegeta's power. 113. "What have you done? Your power used to be over ten thousand!" he screamed at him.

"Don't trust your scouter." The corners of his mouth were drawn upwards, into an arrogant smirk. "It lies."

"Or maybe you have gone soft." Nappa wanted to step forward, but Raditz held his hand to Nappa's chest.

"Kakarot will demonstrate." Vegeta said simply, turning to said Saiyan.

Goku concentrated for a moment, while Nappa measured the power through his scouter. Then it disappeared, the device calculated for a bit, and settled on Vegeta instead. Nappa reset the device, and he saw Goku smiling and waving through the red glass, but as far as the scouter was concerned, Goku did not exist.

Raditz glanced sideways to Nappa. "How?" he asked.

Vegeta waved a finger. "Now that would be telling."

With a cry of anger, Nappa threw himself forward, ignoring Raditz's complaints, and threw a punch at Vegeta. The prince sidestepped and, as if he flew into and invisible wall, Nappa launched backwards, blood spurting from his nose.

Nappa landed some distance behind the other two, who immediately took their battle stances.

"Vegeta, that wasn't nice." Goku said casually.

"He shouldn't have swung at me." Vegeta said back, equally relaxed.

"Aren't you two feeling safe?" Zarbon decided to join in. He drew one hand back and lit a small energy ball in it.

Behind him, Nappa got up to his feet, and released several energy blasts at Vegeta. Said Prince jumped sideways, towards the forest, careful not to let any hit the house behind them. He shot a single blast back, which hit Nappa in the face and the large Saiyan disappeared in the smoke.

Zarbon thought the other was standing idle for long enough and released his attack at Vegeta while said prince passed behind a tree. It hit the tree before Vegeta and the prince moved sideways from behind it and released a blast of his own. It wasn't strong enough to hurt Zarbon, but it did annoy him greatly. Without a sound, the reptilian warrior launched himself between the trees, Nappa hot on his heels.

Goku and Raditz watched the three disappear between the trees.

"I don't suppose you're still willing to join our crew." Raditz didn't even look at his brother, keeping an eye out for stray blasts instead.

"I never was." Goku said back.

Silence, as both Saiyans heard several explosions and screams of rage.

Raditz looked at Goku. "How did Vegeta end up here?"

"I don't think he wants you to know."

"You won't even tell your own brother?" He tried a differed route.

"Some brother you are. You only remembered me when you needed help." Goku crossed his arms in a very Vegeta-like manner.

"Ouch." Raditz replied mockingly. "I'm hurt. So tell me," He took on a more casual pose. "How do you hide your power level like that?"

"Oh, I just repress it." Goku smiled.

"Of course, everyone knows how to do that." Raditz jested. "How strong are you really?"

"Strong enough." Goku said, so far not having really answered anything yet.

"Can you be a little bit more specific?" Raditz was getting annoyed.

"Let's see." Goku scratched the back of his head. "In terms of raw power, I would be a little over half of Vegeta."

"Half of Vegeta?" Raditz blinked. 'That is at least five thousand, if Vegeta has not grown stronger.' He turned to the forest again, letting his scouter search. But it only found two powers.

"It's quiet." Goku remarked. And he was right. There were no blasts going off or in fact any other sound of battle.

"Do you think they got Vegeta already?" He asked casually. "Zarbon is very powerful, you know.

"No way." Goku waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Vegeta is much stronger than they are." Cu to his words, several blasts went off, and a beam of energy flew into the sky.

"And you know how?"

"That's a secret." Goku smiled again.

'How has Vegeta not killed him already?'

Suddenly, Goku broke eye contact. His gaze wandered towards the sky. Raditz followed it, but found nothing. He glanced at Goku, who seemed to have his eyes transfixed on something. He scanned the sky, hoping to see Zarbon and Nappa, perhaps a mangled royal body between them. Instead, his eyes focused onto something else entirely.

* * *

"Behind the tree?" Nappa turned to Zarbon.

"What tree? There are a million of them here." Zarbon snapped at him.

"That one." Nappa pointed a couple close by.

"That doesn't help!"

"Vegeta, you coward!"

Said prince smirked, watching the two bicker while searching for him. He stood on a branch, and let the two pass beneath him. It had been easy, all he had to do was repress his power and move out of their field of sight and the two would never find him again.

He compared their powers. Nappa had definitely increased. And Zarbon was pretty high himself. In fact, before the trio even set fot here he had compared the highest power to his own, and thought that was Nappa's. He smiled; he must have been getting stronger than he thought. Time to find out.

He jumped down between his unsuspecting targets, hitting the ground without even making a sound. The two were standing with their backs to each other, trying to spy him. He walked straight up to Nappa. Using the tree right behind Nappa, he pulled himself up a little to reach right by Nappa's ear. The Saiyan still didn't even notice.

'Was I really this dull once?' Vegeta asked himself before smirking.

"Hello, Nappa" He said softly into the ear.

With an almighty scream, Nappa whirled around, tripping over his own feet, and fell backwards, away from Vegeta. Zarbon turned on the spot, and threw a blast next to Vegeta and over Nappa. It hit a tree and exploded, covering the entire area with smoke.

Nappa jumped up again and started swinging wildly around in an attempt to catch Vegeta before he got away. But Vegeta dodged every swing and stepped backwards into the cover of the smoke, from where he made his way towards Zarbon. The reptilian had made clear of the smoke and had a blast ready to fire.

Vegeta walked calmly out of the smoke with his hands behind his back, towards Zarbon, who was frozen on the spot.

"Maybe a little payback is in order." Vegeta said to him. Zarbon threw it, but Vegeta leaned to his left, letting the blast harmlessly pass by.

"You missed." He antagonized him.

Zarbon threw another. Vegeta dodged in the same manner.

"You missed again." Vegeta straightened his back and let his tail swing freely. "You need to work on your aim."

"So, the monkey learned a few new tricks." Zarbon tried to lure him out of his shell.

"What if I have?" Vegeta let a cocky smirk grip hold of his face. He crossed his arms, daring Zarbon to retaliate. Behind him he could feel Nappa's energy approaching him.

"It won't help you." Zarbon stated.

"Really?" Vegeta felt Nappa firing a large energy wave at him. He didn't even bother dodging. Instead, he turned his left shoulder slightly backwards, fired a beam with his right hand from underneath his left arm. The beams collided; Vegeta's overtook Nappa's quickly, flew right over the stunned Nappa and flew into the distance. He hadn't even taken his eyes off of Zarbon.

"HOW!" Nappa cried behind him. "How did you get so powerful?"

"I do a lot of push-ups and sit-ups." Vegeta turned to him. "And I drink plenty of juice."

Zarbon ignored the comment, and let his scouter calculate Vegeta's power once more. This time he got a reading. It was fluctuating between some twelve thousand and twenty-five thousand.

"You're strong, but not strong enough."

"And what makes you think that this is my maximum?" The power shot up to a steady thirty thousand. Vegeta eyed the green skinned fighter.

Then the smirk washed off of his face. His eyes shot to the sky. Out of reflex, Zarbon and Nappa followed suit. The sky was turning orange, as hundreds of small fireballs were descending upon Planet Earth.

* * *

End of Ch 9.

* * *

Thank you for reading, please review, and tell me the things you liked and didn't like.

Special thanks to BringingYaoiBack, for Beta Reading.

And to MsAnimeGeek, for beta reading, as well as helping me improve my writing.


	10. Ch 10 Invasion II

A/n: Thank you for all the supportive reviews. I'm really glad you like it.

Just in case, this all happens around the time where Raditz lands in canon. which means Gohan is four and a half, while Trunks is almost two.

* * *

Ch 10 Invasion II

* * *

"Then Goku flew off." Tien concluded.

"Brother?" The old hermit scratched his beard. "This could get complicated."

"Judging from the energy," Shen joined in. "He brought reinforcements."

"Well, he did say he would stay here with his crew." Yamcha added.

"This could turn ugly." Tien said. "You think Goku needs help?"

"He's Goku's brother. Let's not butt into their personal lives." Krillin shook his head. "How about we just gather the other dragon balls in case things go south." He suggested instead.

"Master Roshi." Tien addressed the hermit. "Where did you put the radar?"

"I think Bulma took it with her last time." Roshi stroked his beard, thinking back.

"Well then." Yamcha stood up. "Let's fly over shall we?"

The three left Kame house towards West City.

"Hey Tien?" Yamcha said. "Do you think those two will show up for the next tournament?" It needed no explanation who these two were.

"No." The short answer came. "At least not to fight."

"Lucky us." Krillin joked. Neither Goku nor Vegeta entered the Word Martial Arts Tournament since Goku's marriage almost six years ago. The 25th Tournament would be coming up soon.

They flew a few more minutes. Suddenly all of them stopped mid air. A quick glance confirmed it. All three of them could feel it. It was feint, but there was a power looming overhead. They could not pinpoint it; it was almost like it was spread across the entire sky.

They looked up. Very faintly, small sparks of light could be seen. Almost like stars. Except it was morning. Then the sparks turned orange. Realization hit them. They didn't feel one power spread out; they felt hundreds, spread out over the sky, all of them approaching. Before their very eyes, the sky turned yellow, then orange as many balls of fire rained down from the sky.

* * *

With a loud scream, Vegeta released the energy. It flew up, going trough a few ships, and finally exploding with a huge blast.

The sound of the blast had not even cleared when Vegeta fired a second. This one missed a few ships, but the blast radius was so large it took many of the pods with it.

It was no use, there were simply too many of them. Already there were men climbing out of the craters, and making their way towards them.

Next to Vegeta, Zarbon fired a blast as well, aimed at the ground, where several pods had landed close together. The blast took a large chunk out off the forest.

Vegeta didn't fire a third, since there was nothing left in the sky to fire at. All pods had came in a time span of a few seconds. From his position in the air he could see hundreds of small craters. Every single one of them carried a fighter from the Cold Empire. The thought boiled his blood.

From one side he could hear many blasts and screams. The invaders had reached the trade vessel, and it's crew did not go down without a fight. Vegeta reached out with his energy sensing. The fighters on the ship were twice, of not thrice as strong, but vastly outnumbered. Nappa had gone to help them as soon as the first invader had popped out of its ship. He noticed Raditz fly to the same place before that, and a gust of wind, combined with Zarbon's retreating energy signature told him the latter now went to fight there as well.

He took off towards Goku's energy, killing everything that moved along the way. It only took him a few seconds to reach where the house once was. A large crater laid in its place. Goku was flying just above it, daring anyone to come close. There was already a circle around him, about a hundred soldiers had him surrounded, but none of them dared come closer.

Vegeta dropped next to him. Goku didn't even blink an eye at his arrival, while several of the more nervous invaders launched themselves backwards in surprise.

"Nice of you to show up." Goku commented dryly.

"Your brother ran off I take it?" Vegeta fired a beam at an advancing soldier, who now fell to the earth with a hole on the chest.

"He fled before the first ship landed." Goku made a sideways waving motion, blowing several invaders backwards without hurting them. "Chichi grabbed Gohan before the house blew up. They're up in the sky." Goku told him.

And true enough, as Vegeta looked upwards he saw the woman holding her son in her arms floating unsupported high above them. There were several soldiers around them, but not as many as down here, nor as close.

"Looks like teaching her paid off after all." Goku said, kicking something purple into the ground below them.

"Nh."

They flew there, back to back, with many soldiers hovering around them. Vegeta noticed Goku hitting something again, and felt someone being knocked into the ground. No one from his side had made an attempt to engage him again.

"Kakarot, quit being so soft!" He berated the other Saiyan.

"I can't just kill them, they're so weak." The other complained.

"Those weaklings are here to kill us, and they will wipe out the entire planet, along with your wife and son unless we stop them here and now!"

A sharp scream above them echoed. Though Chichi had trained enough to learn to fly, she was not yet as strong as one of these invaders, let alone several of them. Vegeta felt his partner tense up behind him.

"Go!" Vegeta commanded him. "I'll take care of this lot."

Goku didn't need to be told twice, and shot up to his wife. Another scream reached his ears. Then a power spiked. Goku recognized it immediately; it was several times that of the invaders. Then another voice reached his ears as he watched the small figure engulfed in blue light, knocking Chichi back.

"Leave my mommy ALONE!" At the last word, the boy released the energy, bursting in all directions. Some of the unlucky invaders were hit by it, and surprise and pain was etched on their faces as the energy passed clean trough their bodies.

"GOHAN!" He yelled. As his power was much higher, he let the blue energy clash harmlessly against him as he flew up. Goku caught the boy as he began to fell. Gohan looked up at him.

"DADDY!" He screamed as he clung on and buried his face into his father's chest. Goku held the boy with one hand, while firing an energy blast with the other. The blast flew trough an advancing invader and exploded near a second, killing them both. The rest scattered.

"Goku!" Chichi threw her arms around him from behind, and leaned on his back. For a moment, Goku felt anger welling up inside of him. To the invaders for attacking his family. But more to himself, for not coming for them sooner. He repressed the feelings. Now was not the time.

Below him, Vegeta had not even noticed the skirmish above. He was firing as many blasts as fast as he could. He sprayed them in all directions, and soon the invaders were fleeing for their lives.

Goku looked around for a bit, but all possible enemies had fled the battlefield already. He lowered himself gently, cradling his son to his chest with one hand while letting the other hang freely, ready to intercept a possible attack. He steadied himself when he reached Vegeta's level, and hovered towards him.

From his back, Chichi lifted herself up and looked down over her husbands shoulder. Instead of the trusted home that once stood proudly upon the mountain, her eyes found the large crater instead, ash and corpses littering the ground. She slipped of Goku's back. With his free hand, Goku caught her, and watched her hanging limply from his arm, with her eyes closed. He sighed.

Vegeta was regaining his breath when he noticed the other Saiyan near him.

"Do you think they're gone?" Goku asked, trying to hold his wife in a more comfortable position.

"No." Vegeta floated towards him. "We just scared them off for now."

"It's going to be ok." Goku spoke softly to Gohan. "Daddy's here now, everything is going to be alright." Letting Chichi's head rest on his shoulder, he turned back to Vegeta. "Where to now? Our house is gone, and we can't keep flying up here forever."

In the distance, explosions ringed as the battle around the space ship had not yet been decided.

"The lookout is out of the question." Vegeta crossed his arms. "If the geezer dies, the dragon balls will go with him. The woman lives in one of the biggest city's on the planet, which makes it a popular target. Leaving the beach house."

He paused to listen to the sounds of battle. Hiss frown deepened. "This was not a coincidence. They led them here." He gestured to the ship. "Willing or not."

"Something bothering you?"

"The weaker ones were probably sent in first. Whoever's in charge does not feel confident enough to take us down with one blow. I bet Frieza's stronger soldiers are waiting for us to tire out, and then pick us apart." His gaze went over the ship, and the battle surrounding it. "Perhaps we should help them out. They could prove to be a useful ally."

"I'm not leaving my family in their hands." Goku stated.

"I didn't say that."

"Ok." Goku turned. "But I'm dropping by Kame House first. I think the others are strong enough to hold their own against these guys."

"Fine. I'll gather the ones here, and meet you there."

The men flew into opposites directions.

* * *

Yamcha's back touched that of Tien. Many aliens flew around them, keeping a respectful distance. Krillin flew a little lower, trying to figure out which way to go. Wreckage littered the city, and landmarks were erased. Bulma's energy signal was overshadowed by these invaders. If she's still alive. With nothing to go on, they had to trust in their guts.

"I think it's that way." Krillin drew level with the others, and the three levitated back-to-back.

"You think or you know?" Yamcha asked.

"I think I know."

"This is West City, isn't it?" Tien broke them up.

"I don't know." Krillin answered truthfully.

"Why don't you find out?" Yamcha fired up again.

"Sure, let me wander off to look at a few signs. Hell, maybe one of those bastards will point the way!"

"Why didn't you keep track!"

"I was a little busy FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES!"

"BREAK IT UP!" Tien screamed. "Have you two gone insane!"

"Sorry." Yamcha mumbled.

Krillin let his eyes wander over the ruined city below them. Body's littered the street, and buildings were reduced to piles of smoking rubble. The invaders had wasted no time killing as much as possible. They were not very strong, but there were so many of them. Thousands.

Then a half destroyed skyscraper caught his eye. He had seen it several times flying to Bulma's.

"That way." He said to the others, flying off.

"You sure?" Yamcha asked calmly when they caught up.

"Yes, I recognize the area now. It's not far."

The enemies opened up a pathway before them, and flew after them from behind. They had learned to stay out of the way by now. A few reckless or suicidal fools charged in, and were promptly shot down by a Dodon ray.

"Here" Krillin stepped down. The dome had been destroyed completely, but the layout and surroundings were unmistakable.

"You go in; we'll stay up here and hold them off." Tien said as he and Yamcha remained in the air.

"Ok." Krillin stepped lightly over the rubble, looking for any sign of life. There was none, or it was overshadowed by the many invaders. He was not sure to be worried or relieved. He continued looking, remembering Bulma pointing towards a hatch. Beneath that would be a small hallway, and a private bunker.

He moved some rubble. There it was. He pulled it off its hinges easily, and dropped inside, and was promptly shot between the eyes. It didn't do damage, or hurt much, but it came unexpected, and stung quite a bit.

"Krillin, what are you doing here." The blue haired woman stepped up, a large rifle leaning on her shoulder.

"Bulma, nice to see you as well." Krillin said sarcastically. "You do realize those wont help, don't you?" He gesture to the gun.

"I'm not going down without a fight."

"I noticed." He rubbed the sore spot. "Tien and Yamcha are holding the fort above us, but we really should hurry up."

"So you remembered me after all." She shot the remark at him.

"We were already on our way, but these guys slowed us down a lot." Krillin defended himself.

"What's going on?" She asked as she turned wand walked towards the other door.

"Alien invaders." Krillin answered, following her.

"I figured that much already." She replied sarcastically.

"That's all I know, except they're wearing that armour Vegeta used to wear."

Bulma winced at the name. "You think they're with Frieza?"

"I sure of it, if the state of this city is anything to go by, they've already started clearing out the planet." They arrived at the door at the end of the hall.

"Dammed!" She threw the rifle on the ground, and kicked the door open. It revealed a large room with several large chairs.

"Now honey." A sweet voice came from inside. "That's no way for a lady to behave." In a one of the chairs was a blonde woman reading a newspaper.

"The world is coming to an end and you… forget it." She looked around. "Where's Trunks?"

"Here." One of the chairs turned and revealed a purple haired man, holding an equally purple haired boy. "Did the rifle work?"

"I don't know, it didn't work on him." Bulma pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

"I didn't think it would." The older scientist said.

"It was worth the shot." Bulma countered.

"Bulma. Invasion. Remember?" Krillin asked annoyed. "Is the dragon radar still intact?"

"So that's what you came for? Is that all I'm good for these days?" She couldn't help but fire up.

"No, it's just something we might need when this blows over. You know, revive everyone who died and all that." Krillin asnwared casually.

"Sorry." Bulma took Trunks from her father. "The radar was upstairs, along with pretty much anything else that might have been useful."

"But you can make a new one, right?" He asked, slightly desperate.

"Of course, you are talking to one of the greatest technological mind on the planet." She reached over to grab a little box.

"Bulma, don't go stroking you ego. It's bad for your image." Her father reprimanded her, turning back to the gadget he was working on.

"Dad, we're among friends. Besides," She whiffed her hair and continued to Krillin in a low voice. "You know it's true."

"Not going to argue." Krillin grinned and turned to go back. "What about your parents?"

"Stubborn." She sighed. "They want to stay with the house."

"Their choice, lets get a move on before backup shows up." They went back to the hatch, when they noticed an eerie silence. Krillin peeked out the opening, and saw his two friends floating above him. Around them were many enemies, but none dared to get close.

"Well then, hold on to Trunks." Krillin said, picking Bulma up from behind.

"Hey, what about a plane?" She protested.

"Too slow. And easy to blow up." He said, flying up towards the others.

"You've got her then?" Tien said when Krillin came next to him. "Let's not stick around longer than necessary."

They turned the way they came, flying slowly, but steadily through the ring of enemies, slowly speeding up.

"Krillin, have you noticed?" Yamcha turned to the smaller warrior. "Goku is on his way as well, but Vegeta went towards the other high power."

"Well, no." The monk answered, concentrating for a bit. "Yes, you're right. But why would they split up?"

"Goku has his family to worry about." Bulma answered for him. "He is probably taking Chichi and Gohan to Kame house for protection so he can go out and deal with these invaders without having to worry."

"Vegeta's idea no doubt." Yamcha added coldly.

* * *

He had to be careful who he struck. Friends and enemies alike were aliens of many different species, and all of them were wearing battle armour and a scouter. 'Brilliant.' He rolled his eyes at himself.

"Raditz." Zarbon's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Why don't you start the ship up?"

"No." He shook his head. "We were either tracked, or trapped. Going into space now without means to protect ourselves from the many ships that will probably up there would be suicide."

"Then what should we do?" The reptilian set down next to him.

Raditz didn't answer, watching Nappa fight high above the ship. Several of his crew were fighting alongside of him.

"Our best chances are to band together with the local warriors." He suddenly declared.

"You want to ally with the pathetic weakling of this planet?" He was genuinely surprised.

"I was referring to Kakarot and Vegeta!" He scratched his thin in thought. "But that suppressing power thing they do must have came from somewhere. Is it a common skill on this planet?"

"Yes, yes. We'll figure that one out later, surviving comes first." He had to prioritize.

"Yes." Raditz snapped up. "How are we holding up?"

"We're surrounded, and heavily outnumbered. But we were last time as well, and we made it out fine." Zarbon summed up quickly.

"Last time we stumbled upon each other by chance, and we could pull out before backup arrived. But I guess that's not an option now." Raditz shook his head.

"Then what?"

"Depends on what those two will do. If they are willing to put our differences aside and work together, I say we must do the same. If not, we still have my Power Ball and your transformation. We'll manage." A sly grin decorated his face.

An energy blast exploded just besides the ship.

"Nappa, watch it!" Zarbon screamed up.

"Sorry!" The Saiyan screamed back. "Slipped out of my fingers."

"Zarbon, why don't you help Nappa out? You know, before he blows the ship up himself." Raditz suggested.

"Fine! But there better be a backup plan, because we can not hold this up for long!" Zarbon threw at him.

Raditz watched Zarbon take off, and join Nappa in the battle. He glanced around. Several of his crew members laid on the ground, and many more enemies with them.

-Line Break-

"Nearly there." Yamcha commented. They flew close by the water in a fast pace. On their tail were the invaders, keeping a distance, but gradually catching up. Yamcha spun, holding his hands by his hip.

"KA-ME-HA-ME!" He formed a blue ball in his hands. The aliens stopped mid air, and tried to disperse.

"HAA!" With the final word, Yamcha released the wave at the clustered enemies behind them. The wave split the water as it rushed towards its target. The distance between Yamcha and his target was too great, and the wave flew between the soldiers without hitting any of them. But it had accomplished its goal, as the soldiers would keep a greater distance. Until they grew a little braver, and needed a new reminder.

"This is getting old." Tien said to Yamcha.

"Guys, could you slow down a little, I can hardly breathe." Bulma said, trying to shield herself from the wind with one hand. Trunks, sitting on her other arm, seemed to have no trouble.

"We can't outrun them, not with Bulma here." Krillin said to the other, dropping back a little.

"I said we don't have to. If we can gather our strength in one place, we can protect ourselves while forming a plan." Tien turned and dropped back as well. He glanced at the soldiers, who were still keeping a respectful distance. "They're trying to outlast us, and at this pace, they will win."

"Guys, check that out." Yamcha pointed slightly to their left, where they could see a blue beam travelling over the water.

"Master Roshi's Kamehameha." Tien said, flying a little higher. He could see the island, as well as numerous figures flying around it. Occasional flash of light lighted up.

"Yamcha, one more time." Tien shot forwards, while Yamcha turned to fire once more at their pursuers.

Tien flew higher, above the battle, and searched for familiar energy signatures. Then he clenched his hands together, forming a diamond.

"KIKOHO!" His voice echoed as the attack struck down, just next to the house, into the water. Many unlucky flyers were caught in it, and those that survived the impact would succumb to the sand and water now flowing over them.

"TIEN!" A high voice yelled as he dropped down.

"Chiaotzu." He said as a greeting.

"Tien, am I glad to see you." The Turtle Hermit said to him as he touched the ground.

"What took you so long." His own teacher said from above.

Krillin floated down next the Tien. "Ok, Bulma, we're here." He said as he released her. Bulma glanced at her surroundings, noting the large amount of enemies around.

"I think I was safer in my basement." She said, half serious.

"Then by all means, go back." Tien teased her as he flew up again.

"Bulma, what a nice surprise to see you." Roshi ran towards her. "Are you injured? Let me check." He stopped as Bulma firmly planted her elbow in his face. "Is that a no?"

"The world is invaded by aliens, we're fighting for our lives." Krillin shook his head. "And he still has the time to flirt?"

"Some things never change." Yamcha said, floating next to Tien. "What do you think? All at once should be enough." He continued to the three eyed warrior.

Tien gathered his energy, Krillin and Yamcha brought their hands by the hip. "Everyone, fire on my mark!" Tien said calmly.

Master Roshi turned his attention away from Bulma, and charged up a Kamehameha. Shen set down next to him, and gathered energy at the tip of his finger. Chiaotzu did the same.

The group that had been following Yamcha, Tien and Krillin had caught up, and were forming a large, united charge.

"NOW!" Tien screamed, firing over the house. Three Dodon's and three Kamehameha's were fired into six differed directions. The soldiers stopped charging them and flew off, leaving many bodies lying on the ground, or floating in the water.

Four pair of feet set down next to Krillin. Yamcha let himself drop down unto his knees, while Chiaotzu floated next to him.

"They should… think twice… before… attacking now." He panted.

"Looks like Goku is going to be here soon." Krillin told the others. "And since his wife and son are going to be here as well, let's clean up a little. We down want to scare the little tyke for life."

"Remember last time we made a tiny little mess?" Yamcha asked, starting to clear the island.

"My hearing will never be the same again." Tien joined him.

"Eh… Guys?" Chiaotzu drew their attention. "If Goku has Gohan and Chichi with him, how will he get through them?" He pointed to the line of enemies, floating in the far distance.

"Looks like we have our job cut out for us again." Tien said, lifting off slightly.

"Cant we ever catch a break?" Krillin complained, while joining him.

"I'll stay here and hold the fort." Yamcha declined.

"Lazy ass." Krillin remarked over his shoulder.

"Hey, if Bulma gets killed, our little tour just now would have been in vain." He tried to defend himself. Bulma got hold of his ear, while the other two flew off again, towards Goku's approaching energy.

Their blue aura's flared as they sped up. Without having to worry about Bulma, they could easily out fly any invader, and thus had quickly passed the line of siege. Soon a little blue spark lit the horizon.

"Guys!" The joyful voice greeted them. Goku slowed down a little, and the other two reversed directions. Goku was carrying Chichi in his right arm, and Gohan clinging to his back. He slowed down and lifted the still unconscious woman with his left hand, now carrying her bridal style.

"I have a few unwanted stragglers with me." He said, gesturing backwards with his head, where a fairly large number of powers were following. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"There are a lot of soldiers surrounding the house, so we thought you might like an honour guard." Krillin filled him in.

"Thanks guys." Goku said back. "Would you mind taking Gohan? I don't think he likes flying this way."

"What happened?" Krillin asked as he took the boy around the chest. "You and Vegeta flared highly a couple of times."

"A lot of soldiers landed near my home. It was a mess." A faint shadow moved over Goku's face as he looked down. Then he looked up again. "So, how are you holding up?"

"Decent" Tien answered. "Given the circumstances. At first we went over to Bulma's, to gather the rest of the Dragon Balls, when those invaders came raining out of the sky. We managed to pick up Bulma and Trunks, but everything else was pretty much lost. Master Shen, Master Roshi and Chiaotzu managed to hold Kame House, so I guess that'll be our base for now."

"It's surrounded of course." Krillin added. "It looks like our high powers are drawing all the attention."

"You can say that again." Goku agreed. "All invaders landed near one of the high powers on the planet.

"You had time to track them?" Krillin sounded amazed.

"I can't track every single one, but I do have a general idea." Goku returned.

"Well, care to share?" Krillin raised an eyebrow.

"Lets see." He thought a bit before continuing. "At first there were four groups of about the same size. First you guys near Bulma's, then Master Roshi and Master Shen at Kame house, my brother and his crew at their ship, and us, Vegeta and I, near my home. But now Vegeta and I have split up, some of our group went towards the ship, but not those guys." He pointed backwards. "Most of them decided to follow me. And your group joined with those at Kame house, making it the largest one."

"I see." Tien interrupted them. "So how do we get through the ring of enemies?"

"Just blast through." Krillin suggested. "It worked well so far."

But when the three came closer, the enemies spread out, letting them trough unhindered.

"That was… unexpected." Krillin stated as he and Goku landed. Tien remain in the air, keeping an eye out for foolish pursuers. He noticed Goku's trailers join up with the ring surrounding them.

"A guess they do learn after all." Krillin remarked as he went inside.

"I'm not complaining." Goku said back, taking Chichi inside, and laying her on the couch.

"Goku, what happened?" Bulma hurried to them.

"Our house was blown up; she didn't take it to well." Goku said plainly. "She just fainted though, she'll be alright."

"Gohan, we've landed, you can let go of me now." Krillin was trying to peel Gohan off of him.

"I think I have a pry bar in my toolbox." Bulma joked as she watched the two.

"You brought your toolbox?" Goku asked while he took Gohan.

"I had a reserve in the bunker." She answered.

"You had a bunker?" Goku continued.

"Long story." She waved. "How is Vegeta?"

"Very pissed off. He thinks my brother led them here." Goku was with a happy voice, but a serious face.

"Your brother? That err… radish guy?' Bulma dug in her memory.

"Raditz." He did a double take. "Wait, how do you know?"

"Vegeta told me." She stated with a small smile.

Goku's attention was drawn away from Bulma as his son was pulling on his sleeve.

"Daddy, are the bad men gone now?"

"Yes, they're gone." He set the boy down, who immediately shot towards his mother.

"Is mommy going to be ok?"

"Of course, she's just sleeping." Goku downplayed for him. He turned to Krillin.

"How well can you guys suppress your energy's?"

"How well?" He was taken off guard by the sudden question. "I think we can manage normal human levels."

"Not good enough." Goku shook his head. "Could you guys do me a favour and keep an eye on these two?"

"Sure, but where are you going?" Krillin wanted to know.

"I'm off to see what's going on. If I repress my energy, I become practically invisible to their scouters." Goku turned away.

"But what about… HEY WAIT UP!" It was no use trying to talk to Goku anymore, for he had taken off.

* * *

End of Ch 10.

* * *

Thank you for reading.

I know this chapter is a little dull, but I'll make it up to you in the next few.

I think I'm increasing the word count from 2k to at least 4k a chapter. It makes writing easier. Somehow.

On a side note, do you know when you write something, but then you lose it. And when you try to write it again it just feels like it's not as good as the original.

You see, I wrote this story a few years ago, but I couldn't find where I saved it. that was before I learned of this sites existence. so I just assumed I deleted it, and since I still remembered the general plot, started over from scratch.

But I found it last week, it was on that usb stick that has been layiong on my desk for ages. Right there, in plain view. (facepalm).

I was so happy. Until I read it again.

It was terrible. I've read troll ficts better than that. And its not funny bad either, just plain sad bad (sbad?). So I'm cured of my nostalgia. LOL.

Special thanks to MsAnimeGeek, for being my beta, and helping me improve.


	11. Ch 11 Invasion III

Ch 11 Invasion III

* * *

"Thanks Vegeta!" The words were said in an ice cold tone. Vegeta didn't even acknowledge he heard it.

Zarbon turned away from him, and reached for his scouter. He eyed the smoking ship.

"Raditz, how are things inside?" He asked over the device.

"Pretty banged up, the blast went straight trough our fuel supply. We're lucky it didn't ignite." The Saiyan informed him.

Zarbon cursed, and Nappa landed next to him, also avoiding the sight of his prince.

During the battle, they had found themselves surrounded, outnumbered and outmatched. Even with Zarbon's high power, there were simply too many of them to take on at once. Until Vegeta decided to join in.

Sure, they were in a desperate position, and Vegeta's intervention had given them enough relief to retaliate. But Vegeta didn't care where he shot his blasts, and one of them went straight trough the very ship everyone was trying to protect.

"At least you live to see it." Vegeta stepped up to them, practically feeling their silent accusations. "If I had waited one more moment, it would have been over for all of you."

"Don't you get it?" The question was asked in a calm voice, but it betrayed a great suppressed rage. "Without our ship, we are stranded here. And Frieza knows exactly where to find us." He swiped his hand in a wide arc to emphasize the statement.

"You think those soldiers were here for me or Kakarot?" Vegeta shot back. "After so many years Frieza suddenly remembered where I was? No! He was on to you from the very beginning! Following your trail, straight towards us! We were a nasty surprise, and the only reason you are not yet kneeling before him, shivering in fear, and ready to be tortured!"

He forced the other two to look him in the eye.

"Maybe if you had not ran with your monkey-tail between your legs, this would have never happened!" Zarbon spat out. Unseen by everyone, Raditz had levitated out of the ship, and was observing the situation with great interest.

"What, you miss sucking up to his holy lizardness?" He dodged a badly aimed punch. Nappa turned, his face was red with anger.

"If you had not hidden like a coward and let Raditz and I take the blame for it, we…" His words were lost as he took a hit against the chin. He fell backwards, looking up at Vegeta.

"You what?" The words were low and threatening. "Is this how the both of you think? Some bastard has blown up you planet and wiped out your species, and you want to spent your lives life polishing his boots?"

"Like you were any different!" Zarbon countered. "Oh Lord Frieza, please let me have a new assignment."

"I was biding my time and raising my power." Vegeta defended himself, crossing his arms before his chest.

"So were we!" Nappa screamed at him.

"I doubt that!" Anger was starting to take hold of him. "Both of you only took pleasure in the slaughter. Both of you only care about your next kill. You didn't care about honour, revenge, or even anyone else but yourselves!" He huffed at their outraged faces. "Don't think I didn't see you up there, chasing them down. It's pathetic, running after a fleeing man."

"We pursued them to make sure they would not come back." Zarbon tried to defend himself.

"NO!" With a wave of his hand he created a powerful gust of wind, nearly blowing the other two away. "You were hunting them down like animals, slaughtering them for the sake of it!"

Both Nappa and Zarbon launched themselves at Vegeta. Zarbon arrived first, and attempted a flying kick into Vegeta's stomach. The prince had seen it coming, and sidestepped, letting the green fighter carelessly fly past. Nappa struck out with his right fist, aiming for the head. Vegeta countered with his own. The two blows collided and Nappa's hand was crushed by the impact. He was blown flatly unto his back.

"I thought you had learned by now." Vegeta commented. In the time it took him to speak, Zarbon charged up a beam, firing it now at the back of the prince's head. Vegeta turned slightly, and bended backwards, letting the beam fly past his face so close it nearly singed his eyebrows. His hand shot up, and from his finger bursted a simple beam, not unlike the one Frieza used to use. The thin beam hit Zarbon trough the shin, making him drop to one knee.

Nappa wanted to jump unto his feet, and engage Vegeta, who was standing at his feet. But in a sitting position he found himself staring at an energy blast. He could feel the skin on his face burn from the sheer energy within the blast. A feint hum filled his ears.

With one outstretched hand, and a blast at the end of it, Vegeta held Nappa down without looking at him. His eyes were on Zarbon, who was staring back. He too was looking at a blast, though not as close.

"Look at you." Vegeta's scowled. "You are supposed to be elite members of warrior races." He withdrew the energy, but neither foe moved a muscle. "You are nothing but a joke."

Behind him, Raditz was steadily moving closer.

"Don't even think about it." Vegeta warned him, not looking back. Raditz blinked. Vegeta turned to face him, lifting off slightly.

The two on the ground got up and went back into the ship, shooting Vegeta heated glares all the way. Nappa nourished his crushed hand while Zarbon limped a little.

Vegeta watched them. "Disgusting."

"What happened to you?" Raditz voice was calm, as he drew closer.

"I saw my chance, and I took it with both hands." Vegeta answered cryptically.

"I noticed." Raditz seemed to understand. "The old Vegeta would have killed them on the spot. Hell," He chuckled. "The old you would not even have tried talking to them."

"Your brother happened." Vegeta let his eyes wander over the now broken ship. "I found him to be very… persuasive."

"Persuasive? Kakarot?" Raditz raised his eyebrows. From his small time together with his younger brother, he didn't have a high opinion on him.

"Despite of what he acts like, Kakarot is not stupid. Just a little… carefree." Vegeta added, hesitantly.

"And annoying." Raditz found it necessary to add.

"So you noticed as well." He let a small smile take hold of his face. "Yet he convinced me to spend my days here on peace."

"Peace? For a Saiyan. I thought we were a species of war. Thriving only in the heat of battle. Growing stronger with every fight." Raditz mockingly summed up. Indeed, these were the words Vegeta himself had said so many times. Before he left, anyway.

"And yet here I am, many times stronger than when I left." Vegeta said with a calm voice.

"How?" A single word. Raditz was starting to get very interested.

"You're stronger, aren't you?" Vegeta said to him. "At least tripled in the time I was gone." Raditz didn't answer, and Vegeta eyed the horizon.

"You're right, we Saiyans are meant to live a life of battle." He continued, taking Raditz off guard. "But it would seem that spending months at a time in a space pod and wiping out entire planets of weaklings is not exactly a life of battle."

"You **have** changed." Raditz suddenly clamed, putting emphasis on the second word. Vegeta looked at him. "You're calmer, much more confident in yourself. You used to either rush into battle headfirst or let Nappa and I take the brunt of it. But now you seem to be in control of yourself when fighting, thus better controlling the fight."

"You are smart." Vegeta said. "Like I said, your brother is a persuasive man." His eyes shot towards the horizon again.

"What are they doing there?" He mumbled.

"What? Who?" Since Raditz didn't see anything, he couldn't help but ask.

"They are gathering." Vegeta stated. "Planning something."

"Maybe they're trying to get it contact with whoever sent them." Raditz suggested.

"Hn." He tore his eyes away from the horizon. There was nothing to see anyway.

"Can your ship still fly?" he asked suddenly.

"No, your blast took out our shields, and made a hole in our hull." Raditz answered, a slight accusation in his voice. "If we try to leave like this, all of the air will flow out once in space."

"I didn't ask for that." Vegeta sounded annoyed. "I asked if it could take off."

"Theoretically yes, but we can't…" He was interrupted.

"Good, fly it to the highest powers on the planet. That's where this planet's resistance will be, and where I will meet with Kakarot."

"Resistance? On this weak planet?"

"Yes, Kakarot and I will start clearing them out from there, while you and your crew set up preparations for the next battle." He turned to leave, but then looked at Raditz one more time.

"And mind your manners." Vegeta grinned at him. "They can kill Nappa one on one."

* * *

Goku skipped to a differing branch. The men below him had no idea he was here. Taking them out could be so easy right now. He smiled to himself. 'I'm spending way too much time with Vegeta.'

He moved on, as fast as he could without raising his power or making sounds. Silently he blessed all the time he and Vegeta spend 'playing'. Unlike the men below him, he could easily and effortlessly move through the forest. And thanks to his energy sensing ability's, he knew exactly where to go. He skipped from one branch to another, his tail outstretched behind him to keep him in balance as he 'danced' to his destination.

He arrived at a clearing. It was not a natural one, the many craters and uprooted trees proved it. He hid behind a green branch of leaves. For a moment he wondered why he decided to wear a bright orange gi, but rejected the thought. Nothing to be done about it now. He spied though the leaves, but saw nothing. He focused his ears, but most men here were talking through their scouters, and thus he could not hear the other half.

Not willing to go back empty handed, he decided to wait.

* * *

With a soft tab, his white boot met with the sand. The island was a lot quieter and cleaner than he expected. This was supposed to be a hot zone.

'No, they took advantage of the break given to clean up the bodies.' He told himself. Then a voice tore him from his thoughts.

"Hey Vegeta, nice of you to 'drop by'." Krillin greeted the prince cheerfully.

"Where's Kakarot?" Vegeta asked. He could not sense the Saiyan.

"Out. Flew off without telling as a matter of fact." Krillin informed him.

"Dammed." Vegeta returned to the air. 'Why would he fly off in a time like this?'

"Hey Vegeta." Tien drew his attention. "Something bothering you?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" He threw sarcastically.

"You look like you're ready to kill everything in sight." Tien commented.

"Maybe I am. Maybe that's what we're supposed to be doing right now!" It took most of his self control not to blow up again. Can't they understand the situation they were in?

"Tien, what's wrong?" A high pitched voice sounded, as the little mime flew up to his friend.

"Nothings wrong, just Vegeta throwing another fit." Tien answered casually.

Vegeta's eyes snapped open, and set them on Chiaotzu. An idea was born in the back of his head.

"You." He said.

"We have names, you know?" Tien crossed his arms. Vegeta ignored him.

"You're psychic, aren't you?" He asked. The mime nodded.

"Can you find Kakarot, and ask him to come back?" Then he shook his head. "No, new plan, can you contact him and tell him what I tell you?"

"You mean telepathy?" The mime asked for the obvious.

"Yes, just hurry." Vegeta was getting impatient.

"Ok." The mime closed his eyes, concentrating on his task.

"What do you intend to do?" Tien asked the prince.

"Render the enemy blind, deaf and mute in one shot." He summed up.

Chiaotzu concentrated his mind.

'Goku, can you hear me?' Chiaotzu reached him.

'Chiaotzu?' Goku sounded surprised.

'Yes, I'm talking to you with telepathy. Vegeta has something to ask you.' He explained quickly.

"Have you reached him?" Vegeta asked from behind, breaking his concentration.

"Yes, I have." The small man answered.

"Ok, just patch him through." The Saiyan commanded him.

"I'm not a phone." The little guy protested.

"I said, let me talk to him!" Vegeta's voice sounded through Goku's head as well.

'Oh, hey Vegeta, when and how did you become psychic?'

'Shut up Kakarot. Where are you?'

'I went to scout ahead. I'm near the centre of their camp, but I haven't seen anyone of importance yet.'

'Of course not, their leaders are probably still in space. But listen; remember when you blew up my scouter all these years ago?'

'You're not still angry about that, are you?' Goku mockingly asked.

'Yes…' Vegeta answered, though Goku could hear a distinct amusement. 'Do you think you can do that again, in the middle of the camp?'

'Eh, sure. But why?' Vegeta could practically see his confused face.

'Why? Because without their scouters they will not be able to track us, not contact each other, that's why!'

'Ok ok, I'll do it.'

'Good, I'll do the same…' "DAMMED!" Vegeta's mental scream ringed through the link.

'Kakarot, wait for my mark.'

Vegeta turned and flew away.

"HEY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Tien's voice sounded from behind, but he didn't care. He had overlooked something, and nearly screwed up. Not caring about being tracked, he flew straight towards Raditz's energy, which was moving closer. After several minutes at top speed, the large space ship came into view, and he could feel the energy of the many soldiers trailing it.

'This better work.' He said to himself. A door in the ship opened, he was seen coming. He flew trough a few corridors, seeking Raditz out, and finally landed. He was under the hole he had made earlier.

"You need to turn off all power scanners now." He commanded.

"What? Why?" Raditz hadn't even noticed the prince until he spoke.

"Because we're going to blow every single one of them, so unless you want to get caught in the crossfire, they better be off!" Vegeta snapped at him. Then he launched himself off, trough the large hold in the roof.

"Everyone turn off all power scanners and scouters." Raditz said over his scouter.

"What?" The voice of his trusted vice-captain protested. "Without those, we don't know where to go."

"Just keep course, we'll get somewhere eventually. Just turn everything off."

"Ok." The line disconnected.

Meanwhile, Vegeta watched the ship flying from underneath him. He gave them some time to make sure everything was turned off. The enemy soldiers had noticed him, and started to surround him.

Once he decided they've had enough time, he closed his eyes, and focused his power. He spiked his energy three times, hoping Kakarot would notice. Not waiting for an answer, he pushed it up. His blue aura flamed around him, and air currents were washing off of him. He saw clouds being torn apart. He had almost gathered enough energy. He could feel Kakarot doing the same. And then, as if by a single command, both of them raised. Not a little, not halfway, but to their full potential. Vegeta screamed. His aura grew, and fluctuated wildly. Some of the braved soldiers had come closer when he was left behind, wondering. But now they were washed away like a piece of cloth caught in a storm. And they probably felt that way as well.

He screamed, pushing himself harder, until his body screamed in agony. His aura crackled around him uncontrollably. He mentally cursed. He could feel more power at his fingertips, more strength to be gained. But his body would not have it. He was locked out of it.

He settled down, without lowering his power, and took a look at his adversaries. They had fled the scene, flying off in all directions. No-one was pursuing the ship anymore. He sought out the nearest source of energy, and flew straight towards it. He touched down by a small crater, at the middle of it was a yellow alien, unconsciousness, and sporting a small burn on the left side of the face. Vegeta smiled. At least one part of the plan had gone well.

He took off, past the ship, towards the island.

* * *

Goku soared through the clouds. At first he kept hiding his power, but he noticed quickly how easy it was to outmanoeuvre the now blind soldiers. Now he simply flew too fast to follow, headed for the island.

When he felt Vegeta's power spike three times, he figured it for the signal, and began gathering energy. Immediately there were many soldiers surrounding him, ready to attack. But instead of attacking, Goku raised his power, and threw off a shockwave. He saw the faces of many aliens explode, as their scouters overloaded, and went out with a bang.

Not having to restrict himself, he quickly reached the island, settling down on the sand. He was swarmed by his friends.

"Goku, what were you doing?" Krillin asked first.

"Why did you raise your power like that?" Yamcha wanted to know.

"Where have you been?" Tien asked him.

"Vegeta was here, you missed him." Krillin added, not noticing Goku didn't have time to answer a single question.

"Easy boys, give him some breathing space." Master Roshi intervened. Then he turned to Goku. "Tell me, what have you been up to, throwing around that much energy?"

"Well, you see, Vegeta had this plan, so we destroyed every scouter by raising our powers."

"Ok." Krillin was taken aback. "Question one, what are scouters?"

"Oh, those are those little devices they wear on their faces." Goku answered.

"And they track our powers with it?" He asked further.

"Yes, they can't sense energy like we can, so they use those things." Goku explained.

"Ok, question two, how does raising your powers destroy them?" Krillin continued.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask Vegeta that one." Goku scratched his head, wondering that himself.

"Fair enough. Question three." Krillin was now standing on the tip of his toes, with his arms stretched stiffly on either side of his body. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING LEAVING CHICHI HERE!" He screamed point black into Goku's face.

"She woke up?" Goku was surprised.

"Yes, and we haven't managed to calm her down yet." Tien added, mock-rubbing his ear.

"Sorry!" He yelled, as he ran inside.

"Should we tell him?" Krillin asked.

"Nah, he'll figure it out." Yamcha answered amused.

"GOKU!" Chichi's voice echoed over the small island. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? HOW COULD YOU LEAVE US LIKE THAT?"

"Ouch." Krillin laughed.

"What do you recon?" Tien asked seriously.

"I don't really know." Yamcha looked at the sky. "It feels so disturbed."

"Like there is something trying to block it." Tien added.

"It could be a second wave." Krillin suggested.

"Don't be so pessimistic." Yamcha disagreed.

"No, I think we better prepare for the worst." Tien agreed with Krillin. "And it looks like Vegeta is thinking the same thing. Both he and Goku's brother are coming this way."

"It could be a trap." "Yamcha tried.

"Then Vegeta would not lead them here." Tien shook his head. "No, he's up to something."

"Guys, any plans?" Goku came out the house again. Bulma followed him.

"Nope, we were hoping you had one." Yamcha said back.

"In that case, I finished the radar just now." Bulma suggested. "You're free to go out and collect them. Also, someone could go get some sensu beans from Korin? I'd feel a lot better with those close at hand."

"Good point." Yamcha agreed. "I'll go get some."

"I'll hold the fort." Goku said. "Besides, I don't think my wife will be too happy if I leave again."

"I guess that means the three of us are going dragon ball hunting." Tien said to Krillin. Chiaotzu nodded behind him.

"Hey Bulma." Krillin addressed the woman. "I've been meaning to ask, what was the rifle for? It didn't look like an ordinary gun to me."

"It's not. I've been looking into gathering energy for weapons for some time now." She looked at a few confused faces. "You know, to weapons that can fire energy blasts or something like that. But it didn't work. Hell, I still needed ordinary bullets to shoot something at all."

"But why would you want to make something like that?" Yamcha wanted to know.

"In case of… well, today actually." Bulma answered. "Ever since Vegeta told me what he used to do for Frieza, I thought that maybe, one day, our planet could get invaded as well. And I was right. So I wanted to create energy weapons to give us normal humans a fighting chance."

"I see." Tien pitched in. "I'm pretty sure I saw some devices on these soldiers."'

"You mean those scouters?" Krillin asked him.

"No, the ones some of them held in their hands. I think it was a blaster of some sort." Tien dug in his memory.

"I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." Yamcha said.

"Any rate, could you bring something back for me? Even if it is not a blaster, I could probably use it for something." Bulma asked.

"Sure thing." Tien said as he, Krillin and Chiaotzu took for the sky. "We'll bring a few on our way back."

"Thanks guys." She said to their retreating backs.

"I better go too; those beans are not going to get themselves." Yamcha left as well.

* * *

Some time later, inside of Kame house, Goku sat on the floor, with his legs crossed, and his tail waving gently behind him, he had his arms slightly extended. Between them he held a small ball of energy, letting his son watch how he manipulated it.

"Energy, Gohan." He said. "Draw out your energy."

"But what if I don't have energy?" The little boy asked.

"Everyone has energy; you just have to find it." He dispersed the ball. "Go on, try it yourself."

Gohan mirrored his fathers pose, and concentrated on the spot between his hands. A beat of sweat dripped down his face, and his arm trembled slightly, but there was no energy gathering.

Then a loud roar reached the boy. He looked up in surprise, only reproduce the sound himself.

"Ok." His father laughed. "Lunch break it is."

He stood up, and made his way towards the kitchen. Gohan latched himself to his father's tail, and let himself be dragged along.

"Chichi, is lunch ready?" He asked as he glanced around.

"Just a few more minutes." She replied. "Could you take a shower before that? You reek."

"Ok." Goku raised his tail, and his son with it. "Gohan, lets go take a bath."

The two left for the bathroom.

"Watching these two almost makes me forget that there is a war going on." Bulma said.

"Almost." Shen echoed from over his tea.

"Well, Goku has always been like that." Roshi agreed. "And Gohan is still a child." He watched Trunks play with a stuffed toy, until the little boy ripped off the head.

"I guess Trunks takes after his father, doesn't he?" He asked Bulma.

"I don't know, Vegeta didn't stay around long enough to make a comparison." She stood up. "I mean, really! He only came to see him once."

"Well, Vegeta is not exactly the family type." Roshi tried to soothe her.

"Neither was Goku, and look at him now." Bulma countered. She sat down with a small thud. "When I told him I was pregnant, he was all confused, and angry." She started.

"Please don't start this now." Shen said.

"But when I told him I would keep it." Bulma continued, ignoring the old master. "He became really angry. I've heard of men leaving because they don't want to be tied down with a child, but Vegeta was just insane. He almost threatened to kill me at one point."

"Yes, breaking up is hard." Roshi commented.

"He left that day, and only came by once, but Trunks is still his son. Can't he at least take a little responsibility instead of just running away like a child?" She brought down her fist on the table with the last sentence.

"I don't think it's just Trunks." Roshi tried.

"Of course it is." Bulma spat up. "Why else would he do something like that? Oh, I should never have invited him into my home."

"And Trunks would never have been born, is that what you want?" Shen asked sharply. Bulma looked at him like she was going to explode, but then her anger deflated like a balloon.

"I guess not." She finely said. "Still, is it so much to ask to take care of Trunks once in a while?"

"I think master Roshi is right." Chichi, who overheard everything through the open door, walked in with some empty plates. She set them down on the table, and continued. "There must be something about Trunks and Gohan which he dislikes." She sat down on a chair. "When Gohan was still a baby, Vegeta would come over sometimes for a spar. But whenever he saw Gohan, he looked like he just saw something very painful. Eventually, he stopped coming over, and just flared his power whenever he wanted to fight."

"I'm sorry, I… I didn't know." Bulma stumbled.

"It's alright." Chichi waved it away. "Goku was pretty unsure of what to do with Gohan in the first year. And you know how stubborn Vegeta can be."

"Oh I know alright. And Trunks inherited that part of him as well." Bulma sounded a lot more cheerful.

Shen and Roshi met eyes, and one gestured towards the door with his head. The two left the women to their talk.

"So, what now?" Shen asked once outside.

"I don't know." Roshi replied. "Do you feel the power coming from there?" He gestured with his head.

"Didn't that appear after your student raised his power?" The Crane asked.

"Yes, and it looks like he drew some attention." Roshi replied. Then he sighed. "Looks like we are going to have to wait for them to come down to us."

* * *

The end of this chapter.

Thank you for reading and supporting me.

Special thanks to MsAnimeGeek

* * *

A/N: The story has been set up, and the main event begins next chapter.

If the first and other halves of this chapter seem a little off, that's because they were actually two chapters. But I cut a lot of useless stuff. I guess nobody likes to read a thousand word description of Vegeta's scowl.

I can't believe how many people like my story. But it does make me feel a little pressure. Why can't I just be happy?


	12. Ch 12 Invasion IV

A/N: It is time for the next part of the story, which I named:

-Invasion Part 4-

I'm creative...

* * *

Ch 12 Invasion IV

* * *

"Looks like our surprise party failed, sir." The red alien asked. "Should we go in?"

"No" The short answer came. His captain was the only one who was wearing a scouter. "They bee lined halfway across space to this spot, way out in the frontiers. And I want to know why."

"Does it matter?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, it matters. First, our surprise attack failed disastrously. Second, there are stronger warriors on this planet than we anticipated. Thirdly, there were these weird ratings before the scouters went out." He was interrupted when a minion walked up to them.

"Captain Ginyu, the results are in." it announced.

"Good, what do you have?" he asked in a rather demanding tone.

"Before they left for this planet, someone searched trough these files. Launch entrees from around Vegeta's destruction to be precise."

"What, what would anyone hope to find there?"

"There was also a specific file downloaded. According to it, a Saiyan baby had been sent to this planet. And that baby just so happened to be Raditz's younger brother. I think his name was Kakarot."

"Kakarot. Yes, that does make sense. No wonder Raditz was in such a hurry to get here." Ginyu mumbled to himself, clearly audible.

"Another Saiyan?" Recoome spit on the ground. "Recoome can deal with whatever he has."

"You may leave." Ginyu ignored Recoome. The alien bowed and left the room.

"Jeice." He said when the door closed.

"Yes captain." He shot up.

"What do you know about Saiyans?" He was asked suddenly.

"Well, they are a near extinct race, and used by Frieza to wipe out planets, sir." He He answered, feeling like he was stating something rather obvious.

"I meant the species itself." He captain clarified.

"Oh, right." and now he just felt stupid. "Saiyans are warrior race, and thrive in the heat of battle. They are capable of transforming under the full moon. They also have a very large appetite."

"Indeed, Saiyans have a very large appetite." Ginyu repeated. "In fact, it's this appetite that makes Saiyans so dangerous. Saiyans heal relatively fast, and their high metabolism grants them a large stamina. Even low level Saiyans can fight for hours at a time. Their attacks are relentless, and they can take a lot of punishment before going down. Not to mention their tenancy to grow stronger when injured." He turned to his men. "Do you know what that means?"

"No sir." Jeice answered for them.

"It means those two could take on all but me at once and still win." He turned his back on them. "There is a reason I have not engaged them directly. These two Saiyans are much more dangerous than their power level would suggest. You know one of them can create an artificial moon, and the other is, when transformed, is strong enough to harm me." He turned back. "I was planning on tiring them out, but now they have another Saiyan on their side. And judging by these ratings were getting, he could be a Super Saiyan for all we know!"

The men paled at these words.

"Err… sir?" Jeice regained his voice.

"What!" The captain snapped at him.

"Maybe he is not that powerful?" He suggested meekly.

"And why would he not be?" It was more of a argument than a question.

"Well, I was thinking, he is Raditz's brother after all." Jeice started, unsure of himself.

"Yes…" Ginyu didn't see where he was going with this. "Probably."

"Maybe he also knows the moon technique?" Jeice continued, gaining some confidence. "If he and his brother split up, Raditz could have transformed himself, and his brother transformed Nappa. That would explain why there were two of them."

"Yes…" Ginyu was thinking about it. "Yes, you're right."

"And we still have Zarbon to deal with." Jeice continued. "You know he has been training for the last few years. I'd be surprised if he had not increased at all."

"Why don't we just stick together, and pick them apart one by one?" Burter suggested.

"Good idea." Ginyu agreed.

"Then we attack them?" Jeice asked.

"Yes. They have not yet joined together. If we move quickly, we can take out one group before the other arrives. I want Raditz and his brother to be killed first. They are not the strongest, but they can make it a turn for the worst. After them it's Nappa and Zarbon."

"Yes sir." Three voices said.

* * *

Vegeta was standing on top of the ship, flying towards the island. He rubbed over the scouter that decorated his face. Raditz had insisted he had one, so they could talk to each other. It was a strange feeling after all this time. He could hardly believe he once left his life in the care of such a fragile device.

He didn't feel anyone pursuing him any more. The plan had worked.

But he was not happy. He had noticed a threat in the sky. Not unlike he felt before the invasion, but this one was more concentrated, and remained in the air. It grew, slowly, as if it was weary of them.

He turned his attention to the island. Kakarot had arrived already, with one of the three humans, while the other two were flying the globe. Gathering the dragon balls no doubt.

He was on his way as well, with Raditz trying to do some repairs while they flew.

Zarbon and Nappa had withdrawn themselves into their rooms. Apparently, their humiliating defeat did not settle well.

It didn't matter to him. Soldiers with a mindset like that would be more of a threat to them then they would be to the enemy. But he did feel a small pang of regret. Once, he had not been so different. At one time, he too relished in the bloodshed. He was well unto his way of becoming like those two, had a certain boy not changed his fate. He bowed his head, and looked at his open hand. Raditz was right, he had changed. He clenched his hand to a fist, while a grim expression grabbed hold of his face.

His head jerked up. He could feel the energy above the earth moving. Now he could feel it clearly. It was four different people. Three about the same level, and one twice as strong. He reached up to his scouter, and contacted Raditz.

"Raditz, hold up. We have company." He announced.

"What do you mean, we have company?" Raditz protested. Vegeta frowned. Can't the bastards listen just once?

"Raditz." The voice he came to identify as Enno sounded through his scouter. "There is a large power approaching the planet."

"Told you." Vegeta commented, taking off. He placed himself above the moving ship, to get a better look. But it was too far away. He could feel them land near Kame House.

"Zarbon, Nappa. Come in." He called them.

"What!" Nappa's voice came. Vegeta ignored it; he expected them to still be cross with him.

"Get up here, there is work to be done." He said.

"You don't mean were going that way, are you?" Raditz asked him.

"Yes, Kakarot is going to need help. The four of us will go ahead, the ship can wait here." Vegeta said, as he took off.

* * *

The plates had been cleaned, the dishes done and Goku and Gohan were once more sitting on the floor. Yamcha had returened from Korin Tower and was watching them along with Chichi. Roshi and Shen were sitting in the corner talking about something while Bulma was working on some device.

Gohan tried to bring out his energy once more, but nothing happened.

"You can't bring it out if you are all tense." Goku corrected him. "Reach inwards, I know you have it. You just have to pull it out."

"Goku, I don't think this is a good idea. He is way too young to be training." Chichi complained.

"I'm not going to train him yet." Goku reassured her. "But you saw that little outburst. It was not the first one. If he does that inside again I will have to rebuild the house a third time."

"Wow, wow, wow, he destroyed the house before?" Yamcha asked surprised.

"Blew it up actually." Goku scratched the nape of his neck. "I never thought he'd have that much power in him."

"Bet that was an unpleasant surprise." Yamcha chuckled.

"Trust me, it was." Goku smiled. He felt a small hand grip around his tail. He turned, and saw little Trunks.

"Oh, sorry Goku." Bulma got up to get the boy.

"It's ok; Gohan does it all the time." Goku replied.

"Wait, it doesn't hurt anymore?" She asked surprised. She picked the boy up, who was still clutching Goku's tail.

"No, Vegeta and I have been strengthening our tails ever since we met." He removed his tail from the boys grasp. Then he stood up. Yamcha shot up as well, the two old masters stopped talking, and Bulma looked up at the sudden silence. Chichi was looking worried.

"You feel that?" Yamcha asked as he grabbed the brown bag of beans.

"Yes." Goku stood up, and walked outside. He wrapped his tail around his waist. "Stay inside Gohan." He said, before he and Yamcha walked out.

"I'd love to help, but I'm afraid I'm outclassed here." Roshi said to their backs.

"They're early." Yamcha commented. "I hope we can stall them long enough for the others to arrive."

Goku focused on his energy senses.

"Vegeta and the others are near. Tien, Chiaotzu and Krillin are headed this way as well." He infored the former bandit.

"They don't have scouters; maybe they're not headed for us." Yamcha tried to be optimistic.

"No, they're right above us. But they don't know we have reinforcements coming in. We just have to stall them long enough." Goku lifted himself up, just above the house.

"I knew you were going to say that." Yamcha followed him. And there they flew, in silence, waiting.

"You know?" Yamcha tried to break the heavy silence. "If you had told me four hours ago that we would be facing an alien invasion, I would have thought you mad. And here we are now."

Goku simply nodded.

They waited. The seconds ticked by dreadfully slow, as if time was trying to stretch itself. The power approaching them was immense, but they had no choice but to wait for it to arrive.

Finely, five lights lit up the sky. Soon five pods came crashing down into the water. Goku was taken by surprise. The power of the fifth one was so small next to the others that he had not even noticed it.

The pods came up again, levitating above the water. Then they opened, and their occupants came out. They landed in the sand. Goku and Yamcha lowered themselves to the ground as well. They made sure not to have the house behind them.

Five aliens. One large and purple, wearing black armour and the only one with a scouter. Two black horns stuck out of his head, and his power was the highest, twice that of his companions.

One small and green, with four eyes. His power was the lowest.

One large, with red, fuzzy hair. He could have been a human, was he not wearing that armour.

One larger and blue skinned, with red eyes.

And one red skinned, with white hair. His power was on par with the other two.

"So." The purple one put his hands one his hips. "I take it that the two of you are natives to this planet?"

"Actually, no." Goku said back. "He is, but I am… a visitor."

"Really, and what…" Ginyu's eye fell on the brown furry tail around Goku's hips. "You're Saiyan, aren't you? Kakarot, was it?"

"Some friends call me that, but you're no friend." Goku answered. Then he tried for time. "Besides, you have not introduced yourselves yet."

"Of course, how rude of me." He turned to the others. "Shall we?"

The human looking alien struck a pose, with one leg stretched, the other bent, one arm over his stomach and the other stretched out. "RECOOME!" He yelled.

The blue one mirrored Recoome. "BURTER!"

The red one lowered himself to one knee, arms up and hands pointing down. "JEICE!"

The green little mirrored his red companion. "GULDO!"

Their leader turned, and bent over, looking from between his legs. "CAPTAIN GINYU!"

Then they yelled together, while changing poses. "WE ARE THE GINYU FORCE!"

Goku and Yamcha stood as if frozen in place. Neither of them even blinked.

"You had to ask." Yamcha finely opened his mouth.

"Well, I didn't expect that." Goku returned.

"Nobody expects the Ginyu Force." Ginyu said smugly. He let his scouter calculate Goku's power. "Four and a half thousand." He told the others.

"Is that all?" Recoome made fun of him "Is this the big bad Super Saiyan we feared so much."

Goku raised his eyebrows. "Super Saiyan?"

"Your brother didn't tell you?" Ginyu asked him.

"I don't think so." Goku let his tail wave gently behind him. "We first met only a few hours ago." He felt the energy of Chichi, Gohan, Bulma, Roshi and Shen slowly retreating from the island. He hoped his and Yamcha's energy would overshadow them. He also noticed Vegeta's energy rapidly approaching, alone. He could be here in a minute.

"I see." Ginyu replied.

"Before we fight, I'd like a question answered." Goku tried.

"If it's a short one, we still have many people to kill today." Ginyu said casually.

"Where did you get a working scouter? I thought we got them all." Goku gestured with his head to the others face.

"So it **was** you." Ginyu confirmed. "There were a few spares who survived." He eyed Goku carefully. "But enough talking, time to die."

Jeice and Burter charged simultaneously. Yamcha threw a blast down, covering them in a cloud of sand. The two aliens flew right in.

"Hiding, are you?" Ginyu said humoured. "It makes no…" The sand was blown away; Jeice and Burter were standing in a deadlock with Goku, who caught either of their fists. Yamcha was standing behind him.

Burter backed off, while Jeice aimed a high right kick to Goku's head. Goku ducked, and swooped his left leg low, hitting his opponents left. Then he lifted himself up slightly, turned and struck out his other foot in a straight line. It hit Jeice dead centre, and the red alien was blown away over the water, bouncing twice, and came to a rest.

Burter saw his friend being kicked away, and charged Goku. He struck out with his right fist, but Goku moved to his left. Burter spun midair and struck out with his knee. Goku lowered himself and the knee flew over his head, skimming trough his hair.

Burter stopped and turned, swinging a right high kick to Goku's head in the process. Goku blocked it with his left, and fired a blast from his right. Burter bended backwards, letting the blast fly over him, and put his hands on the ground. Then he swung his legs up and over, landing on his feet, facing Goku.

"You're pretty agile for such a large guy." Goku complemented him.

"Well, I am the fastest guy in the universe." Burter boosted, ready to strike again. But then he was hit in the back of the head by a blast, launching him face first into the beach.

A white boot hit the sand just behind Goku.

"Hey Vegeta, nice of you to drop by." Goku said without turning.

"I can't let you have all the fun." Vegeta said back.

Burter had dug himself out, and flew backwards towards his captain. Jeice had also gathered himself up, still dripping wet.

"So, you know anything about these guys?" Yamcha asked Vegeta.

"They're Frieza's elite soldiers. Each of them has a power of about forty thousand, while Ginyu has one of a hundred and twenty." Vegeta explained. Then his eyebrows shot up. "Something doesn't add up. If he really is that strong, he should be more than twice that of the others."

His train of thought was interrupted by Jeice.

"Look at what we have here." The red man said to Ginyu. "A brave native."

"Don't be fools." The captain reprimanded them. "Don't you recognize Vegeta, Prince of all three Saiyans?" he said the last part with some jesting in his voice.

"You're right captain, it is Vegeta." The green man said as Vegeta stepped forward.

"Guldo, you're on the Ginyu force?" Vegeta asked with a tome of humour in his voice.

"Why yes, I am." Guldo said smugly. "Surprised?"

"Wow." Vegeta feigned impression. "Frieza must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Both the human like and the blue one got wide grins, and Guldo shook with anger.

"Hey Vegeta, what happened to your precious Saiyan power?" Guldo tried to get him back. "Dropped to a mere seven thousand, haven't you?"

"Yes, looks like someone has been taking it easy." The red man added, amused.

"Then how did I make little Burter eat sand?" Vegeta said back, smirking.

"You attacked me from behind, that doesn't count." The blue man defended himself.

"That was a warning shot." The prince declared, not without amusement.

"In the back of his head?" Jeice said back. "Maybe you just don't have the power to kill him."

"Oh I didn't try to." Vegeta tried to lure them out. "He was not even worth killing."

"You're bluffing!" Jeice declared.

"Oh no." Ginyu contradicted them. "Just then he had no presence at all, and now he has a lower one then he used to have."

It took all of Vegeta's self control not to show his shock. Ginyu was far to calm about this.

"And the other one had both of you on the ropes with a power of only four thousand." The purple man continued.

"Captain?" The red man asked.

"You see Jeice." Ginyu continued amused. "You are looking at a rare kind of warier. Or rather, a warier with the rare ability to mask his power. Looks like he has learned a few things in his time away." He looked at Vegeta.

"Hide his power?" Jeice didn't understand. "Why would anyone do that?"

"There are a number of reasons. The look on your faces being one of them." Ginyu said. He was right, if the situation had not been so dire, Vegeta would have found their current expressions amusing. But now his life hung in the balance, and he had little eye for anything else.

"Another is to surprise an enemy." Ginyu continued. "When he believes he has the advantage, you show him your true power, and defeat him before he has a chance."

"Or to sneak up on us and pick us apart when no one is looking." Jeice added.

"Now you're getting it." Ginyu praised him.

"But how strong is he really?" Jeice eyed the two Saiyans with interest. He figured he could get a decent fight against Vegeta.

"Warriors like that tend to be very dangerous. Judging by how casually he stopped the both of you, I daresay he has reached at least forty thousand."

"Forty thousand?" Jeice exclaimed. "But that is as high as our powers. He can't have taken both of us with that."

"He caught you off guard. But it is nothing I cannot handle."

"Is that so?" Vegeta regained his confidence. He felt it. Kakarot spiked his power trice, too fast for the scouter to even register, but Vegeta caught it.

"Just because I said you were a rare kind, does not mean you are superior to me." Ginyu smiled when he said it. "There is a reason I know." With these words, Ginyu's power increased. He rose until he added half his power.

"How do you like my full power?" He said, smiling arrogantly.

"You have no idea." Vegeta clenched his teeth. This had been a bad surprise. He had believed two thirds of Ginyu's power to be a hundred and twenty thousand. Now he knew how mistaken he was. The gap between them was too great to risk an attack. Unless Ginyu was a terrible fighter, which he doubted, he was going to need help.

The five aliens were hovering together above the sand. Obviously getting orders on what to do next.

"What's the plan?" Yamcha asked from behind.

"Try not to die." Vegeta answered.

"Thanks, I figured that. Anything useful to know?"

"The blue one deals in speed. Nothing else really. He usually teams up with the red one. He has no strengths, but no weaknesses either. He has a few techniques, but nothing special. The brown one specializes in strength; he'll be hard to take down. And that little green blob over there is supposed to be psychic."

"Could you tell the others to hurry up?" Goku asked. Vegeta nodded and reached up, but suddenly the red glass in front of his eye disappeared, and his finger found no metal.

"Looking for this?" Guldo asked, holding Vegeta's scouter. He passed it to his captain.

"Nice work Guldo." Ginyu complemented him. "Well then boys, let's get to killing." Ginyu loudly proposed. Goku was struck by the sheer coldness of the invaders.

"Yes captain!" Four voices cried, taking identical poses, and punching upwards.

"This is easily the second weirdest thing I've ever seen." Yamcha commented.

Burter opened fire, throwing sever blasts into their direction. Vegeta deflected them, but they turned out to be a cover for Jeice, who was now charging him. Jeice's charge was broken before he reached Vegeta, duo to Goku drop kicking him with both legs from above, causing him to be blown into the sand.

Yamcha saw his chance, and made some distance. These soldiers were too strong for him to fight one on one, so he little choice but to wait for Tien and Krillin to arrive. He made a mental note to train harder.

Vegeta charged in, and met Burter midway, theirs fists connecting. Recoome leaped from behind Burter and tried to punch Vegeta in the face. The fist was redirected by Goku, who grabbed it. The he fired a blast into Recoome's face, covering him with smoke.

Jeice had dug himself out and was raving mad. He attacked Vegeta from behind, landing a heavy kick into the lower back. Vegeta bended backwards in shock and pain, and was promptly punched in the face by Burter. Recoome made a clumsy kick aimed at Goku, but nearly hit Vegeta instead.

Goku ducked beneath the kick and grabbed Burter, and threw him up. Then he followed, separating the both of them from the others.

Vegeta blasted at Jeice, but the red warrior ha seen it coming and dodged. Recoome attacked Vegeta from behind with a low kick. The Saiyan jumped up, taking for the sky, and the two invaders followed. Then he stopped, dropping down. Jeice was taken by surprise as Vegeta planted his right elbow firmly in his face. He crashed down into the sand again.

Vegeta turned his attention to the large brute. He parried a punch, letting it scrape close past his face, before pushing it away from him. He used the opening he just made in Recoome's defence to kick him in the chest. But there was not enough power behind the kick, as Recoome shrugged it off, and grabbed Vegeta's head with both hands. Before Vegeta could react, Recoome delivered a devastating head butt, sending Vegeta crashing down, half consciousness.

Above him, Goku was battling it out with Burter. The fast alien was firing one flurry of punches after another, aimed at the Saiyan warrior. But Goku was faster. He dodged or blocked every single one of them. When Burter struck out with a particularly wide right punch, Goku took his chance and landed a dropping heel kick on top of the alien's head. The blue man came crashing down. Before he could reach the ground, Goku had caught up with him, and delivered a kick into his side, causing him to be blown away once more.

Vegeta tried to clear his head by shaking it. He noticed Goku landing behind him.

"Looks like backup is here." The Saiyan commented.

Jeice, who had dug himself out once again, was charging towards the pair once more, but a blue fist connected with his face. Blood spurt from his nose as his head was thrown backwards. He stopped the motion, and looked at his new adversary. It had green hair and yellow eyes. The light blue skin was covered in scales, fangs glared from between the lips and large muscles rippled over his arms.

"Long time no see." The monster commented, before grabbing Jeice, throwing him down into the water and following him.

"Was that… Zarbon?" Goku asked, dumbstruck.

"It was his energy." Vegeta replied, not really caring. He had his eye on a different prey. "One on one it is. Don't raise your power to high, or we'll lose the surprise. We still have Ginyu to tend to."

Goku nodded once, and took his regular stance.

Burter charged, and was once again deadlocked by Vegeta, but Recoome flew overhead, over the house. Towards the retreating energy of the others.

Without a seconds thought, Goku charged after him.

He did not have to fly far; the others had not gone far yet.

He saw the large man plummeting towards the ship in the water. He dived, drop-kicking him in the back before the man reached the boat.

Apparently, everyone had noticed the battle overhead. All eyes were set on the two in the sky. No one spoke, no one moved. Everyone was listening. Everyone was aware of what was at stake. Even Gohan.

"You can still walk away." Goku's unnaturally calm voice rose above the sound of the waves.

The both of them were floating a few meters above the boat.

"I could, but I won't." His opponent replied. "Ginyu was right; you do care about these natives."

Goku realized he had been set up. The Ginyu force had successfully separated everyone. Except they were separated themselves as well. A bad example of divide and conquer.

The alien grinned as he crunched his knuckles.

"And now you will feel the power of RECOOME!"

With that, he threw himself upon Goku, lashing out with his right fist. Goku dodged it casually. Recoome swung a second time, Goku dodged again. His opponent released a large purple aura. Goku drew back, gaining a little distance. The energy focused around the mouth, and Recoome fired it.

"RECOOME ERASER GUN!"

The beam flew towards Goku, who dodged it so close it singed his clothes. The beam flew over the ocean, creating two large walls of water.

"Wow, that guy wasn't kidding when he named it his eraser gun." Goku commented, watching the thing go. Then he dropped, and a kick flew over his head. He moved sideways, and another kick passed him. Goku flew backwards.

"STAND STILL!" Recoome screamed while flying after him.

"Ok." Goku stopped midair, and Recoome flew face first into an outstretched fist. He clutched his now broken nose.

"Well, you said stop." Goku said smiling.

"RECOOME WILL DRAG OUT YOUR INSIDES!" The large man charged again. Instead of dodging, Goku flew forward, ducked beneath the outstretched arms and placed his knee just beneath the man's armpit. In human biology, that is where the ribs are at their thinnest and most fragile, and judging from the satisfying crunch beneath the knee, Recoome's race was not that differed.

Recoome doubled over, and promptly fell down, into the water. Goku remained in the air, waiting for his opponent to resurface.

Recoome flew up from the water, gasping for air, and clutching his chest. He heaved up blood.

"You will pay for that." He grimaced through bloody teeth.

"Give up, your ribs are broken." Goku stated, but the large alien did not yield. Instead he flew up again, concentrating his energy into his mouth again.

"RECOOME ERASER…" he didn't finish the technique, for Goku had swung down, and delivered a devastating roundhouse kick to the neck. Recoome gasped a little, then he fell back down into the ocean.

* * *

To be continued.

* * *

And what will I call the next chapter.

Invasion V, of course, no surprises here.

If you're curious on why these chapters have the same names, but with numbers, it is because I wrote the entire invasion as one piece, chopping it up where I could.

In fact, all chapters with roman numbers in their names are just parts of a single large piece, which I had to chop down to size.

Making chapters around the same size without sacrificing story telling has turned out a little hard.


	13. Ch 13 Invasion V

Nimedhel09: Oh, I'm not worried, I just thougth it would be something nice to share with you guys.

Enjoy, and please review.

* * *

Ch 13 Invasion V

* * *

While Goku chased Recoome down, Vegeta had his hands tied by Burter.

When the blue man attacked, Vegeta tried to counter, but Vegeta had stuck empty air, as Burter stopped the head on charge at the last moment. The large man kicked low, but Vegeta took off, letting the kick sweep up the sand below him. Burter gave chase.

Ginyu and Guldo were just floating above the water, watching Vegeta lure Burter away.

"I'll be off then." Guldo said as he turned to fly towards where Jeice and Zarbon were fighting.

"No, change of plans. You go to Recoome, after that the two of you will reinforce with Burter. He can bank on his speed, so he'll hold out until you killed Kakarot."

"But what about Jeice." Guldo wanted to know.

"I'll go to Jeice. Meet me here once you are done." He commanded.

"But what about…" The green one kept complaining.

"If anything goes wrong, we still have the backup plan. Go now." His tone left no arguments.

"Yes captain."

* * *

Vegeta sped to where he knew the nearest coastline was. Once there, he landed on the first rock he found. Burter appeared in front of him.

"I guess it's just you and me now." Vegeta said as they locked eyes.

"And soon it'll be just me." Burter said arrogantly.

"Why do you think I led you away? I'll have you know I've been holding back this whole time." Vegeta smiled, trying to lure the other out.

"Oh really." Burter took a stance, ready to pounce. "You cant hurt me. I think you're bluffing."

Burter took off, flying directly at Vegeta. He reached out with his right fist, aiming for the head. But Vegeta caught the fist in his left, mere inches from his own face. His smile was gone, replaced by a chilling glare. He squeezed the arm, and audible cracks were heard.

"You thought wrong." There was a murderous look in Vegeta's eyes, and fear filled those of his adversary.

Vegeta let go, swinging with his right hand. But Burter moved backwards in the nick of time, dodging the strike.

Vegeta came at him again, this time punching with his left arm. Burter let himself drop, and thus dodged again.

Annoyed, Vegeta raised his power to match Burter, creating a shockwave. Burter used the time given to fly away, but could not escape in time to evade the shockwave, and was pressed into the ground. Before he could stand, Vegeta had caught up, and was flying overhead, ready with the killing blow.

"Goodbye, Burter." He said, swinging down. Burter flew off, his back scraping over the ground, leaving a small trench in his path. Vegeta took after him and shot a few energy blasts. Burter dodged the first, and slipped behind a rock, letting the others hit it. He peeked around the stone, looking for his attacker.

"Looking for someone?" Someone whispered into his ear. He jerked himself to his left, turning halfway, and a fist scraped the right side of his face, drawing blood. Vegeta struck once more, but Burter flew up, making him shatter the rock. Before Vegeta cleared the dust, Burter was flying high, hiding in the clouds. Vegeta shot a single blast. It tore trough the cloud, leaving a hole in the sky.

But the blast had missed, and the fast alien was hiding in a new cloud, never even having shown himself. Vegeta smiled, if he hadn't known how to sense energy, he would not have been able to track the annoying pest. He shot a new blast, leaving a similar hole. And Burter had dodged again. Twice he repeated, missing twice more. He held a blast ready, but didn't fire it.

"Getting tired?" He yelled up. No response. "Do you think I'm just lucky?" Still no reply. He fired, making a fifth hole. Burter finally got the message, and dropped down.

"So you learned a new trick?" He asked, holding his broken wrist.

"More than just one." Vegeta replied.

"But you're not fast enough to catch the fastest guy in the universe." He boosted.

"You're right; Kakarot is much faster than I am." Vegeta mockingly admitted.

Burter ground his teeth, clenching out a "YOU!" and firing at Vegeta.

Vegeta narrowly dodged, and Burter took this time to get the hell out of there, Vegeta in tow.

They flew straight for a while, with Vegeta gaining slowly. His higher power allowed him a much higher energy output than Burter. He fired once more. Burter, who had his back turned, was struck. The blast covered the area with smoke for a moment, then Burter came falling out, the back of his armour shattered. He crashed.

"Get up." Vegeta commanded. "I know that blast was not strong enough to kill you."

"Do you really think we got here without a plan?" The alien turned on his back, grinning at him. "Soon the others will get here, and you will be toast." Vegeta knew he was only barely hanging on. He could feel the man's energy slipping away.

"Maybe, but you won't live to see that happen." He placed one foot on his opponent's chest, and gathered energy in his hand. "You're going out with a Bang." He fired point black.

* * *

For a moment, Goku watched his opponent drift in the water. There was no movement, and without help, the man would surely drown. He sighed, and lowered himself to lift the alien out of the water.

But then his body no longer responded to his commands. He remained airborne, frozen and unable to move as much as a finger. Beneath him he saw Recoome being lifted up.

"Wake up you fool." A new voice said. The limp body was shaken side to side, until it moved with a jerk.

"Watz… wazapinin?" the large man looked around.

"You lost, that's what's happening. You better be thankful I got here when I did."

"Guldo?" Recoome managed to recognise his ally.

"Yes, it's me. Now would you kindly KILL HIM ALREADY!" He screamed out the last part.

Recoome looked around rather confused. Then he set eyes on his opponent.

"I'm going to enjoy this." He found a knuckle he hadn't cracked yet, then drew back his right arm, only to wince in pain.

"Get on with it." His team mate egged him on. He drew back his other fist.

The man swung, and hit Goku in the face. Goku felt his nose crack, and his head was thrown backwards, but he was unable to defend himself.

"Harder!" Guldo was back-seat-fighting.

A second blow followed, straight into the gut. It took all of his willpower not to empty his stomach then and there.

A new blow connected with his exposed neck. For a moment, his vision was pitch black, a dull tone rang through his ears and his body felt like it had just been struck by lightning. But then he noticed something else. He couldn't breathe. He tried to suck in air, but nothing came. And he felt cold, so cold.

Then a hand closed around his, and pulled. He felt himself being pulled up, until he broke trough. He gasped for air, finely being able to breathe.

"That was way to close!" A voice screamed at him.

Above him, he saw an orange blur being shot away from Recoome.

"What were you doing up there?" Krillin shook him though, as if to make sure he was ok.

"I was paralyzed." Goku shook his head to get rid of his dizzynes. It didn't work.

"Paralyzed?" Krillin repeated.

"Yes, that little green alien can paralyze people." Goku realized as he said it.

He saw Recoome go after the blur now down in the water, who turned out to be Yamcha, but was stopped mid air. Even higher, Tien floated, with his hands before his chest.

"KIKOHO!" The wave came down on Recoome, pushing him down. For a moment, there was a square shaped hole in the water, but the walls son collapsed, and the alien disappeared beneath the waves.

'I have to learn how to do that.' Goku made a mental note. He pushed himself up into the sky, no longer feeling as dizzy anymore, Krillin following him.

"I can handle this guy one on one, just keep the other one busy." Goku declared.

"Ok, if you say so." The other reluctantly agreed.

Recoome shot out of the water, but the charge was thwarted by Goku dropping an elbow on him.

The other two were ganging up in Guldo. Since Yamcha was still in the water, it was the two of them.

They slowly moved forward, as if daring the green man to attack. And he did. With a swift move of both of his hands, Guldo paralyzed both his opponents in place.

"If you thought I would go down easy, you have another thing coming." He claimed.

He moved his hands slightly and started gathering energy, to attack his defenceless enemies. Then he clutched his stomach with both hands, releasing his psychic grip on the two.

Tien didn't question it, firing a Dodon the moment he could move. But mere moments before the beam hit, the green man vanished into thin air.

It only took seconds for Tien to find him again. He was in the water below, his head only just above it. Tien fired a second Dodon, and once again, the green man vanished just before it hit.

"That's not freaky at all." Krillin commented.

"Tien, are you ok?" A high voice asked.

"Yes, thanks to you." Tien thanked his long time friend.

"Should we pursue him?" Krillin asked uncertainly.

"I'd feel like a bully." Tien confessed.

"Nobody help me get up or anything." Yamcha sounded, still dripping wet.

"You have sensu beans. We could sense you were ok." Tien replied, watching Goku and Recoome duke it out.

Something bothered him. Goku was fighting harder then he ever had during their training, yet he could sense the Saiyan had far more power in him then he admitted. 'Is the difference between us really that great?'

Then a huge tremor shook the earth and trembled the air.

* * *

Nappa and Raditz were flying side by side. The former could have left the later behind, like Vegeta and Zarbon had, but decided not to. He was in no hurry to join forces with Vegeta.

Then bright blue spark lit up the horizon, and a shockwave blow away all of the clouds.

They braced as the shockwave hit them.

"What was that?" Raditz asked.

"Vegeta's last sight, I hope." Nappa added darkly.

Raditz ignored the comment, letting his scouter calculate the power behind the blast. But the energy behind it had already dissipated, and the device was settling on something else. Several powers, three around fifteen thousand, one thirty, and one forty thousand.

"That can't be right." Nappa had also noticed the high powers.

"Zarbon is over thirty thousand." Raditz stated.

They sped up, towards the high powers.

* * *

"Wow." Krillin remarked, surprised.

"There goes one of your friends." Recoome boosted.

Goku didn't answer, instead focusing on the energy headed for them. He didn't have to tell the others, as the person in question covered the distance in to blink of an eye.

"Vegeta? But how? What happened to Burter?" Recoome gasped.

"One way trip to hell. Care for a ticket? I have plenty to go around." Vegeta said arrogantly.

"As if the likes of you could kill one of us." The large man didn't believe him.

"Funny. That's what he said. " Vegeta remarked, before charging in.

He struck with a heavy blow, so hard it caused Recoome's block to smash into his face. He was blown backwards, but Goku got hold of his foot, holding him still for a moment, then swung him up and over. At this moment Vegeta punched upwards, straight into the face of the still falling Recoome. An audible crack echoed. Recoome swung upwards again, blood spurting from his nose.

"Dammed, I was trying to break his neck." Vegeta complained loudly.

Suddenly, he moved left, while Goku moved right, and not a moment to soon, as two energy blasts flew past them.

"His neck doesn't snap that easy." Someone commented from the sky. "A benefit of being thick headed." Two figures dropped from the sky, hovering not to far from the two Saiyans.

"That was your chance for a sneak attack." Vegeta commented. He silently berated himself for missing the obvious power of Ginyu moving towards them.

"I wasn't counting on it anyway." Ginyu answered.

"What do we do now?" Krillin panicked.

"I'll take the ringleader. The rest of you will take out everyone else." Vegeta told him.

"We will?" Goku was surprised. Vegeta glared at him.

Recoome flew towards his captain, one hand still clutched to his face. Guldo had came out of hiding and joined up as well.

"Do you think any of the others can last even a second against one of them?" Vegeta scolded him. "If you had finished him off when you had the chance, we would not have this problem."

He flew up, separating himself from the others. Ginyu understood.

"Kill the others. This one is mine." He commanded as he joined Vegeta higher up.

"Yes captain!" Three voices echoed, as a simultaneous charge was made.

Goku shot forward, kicking Recoome aside and grabbed Jeice. He figured the other four could handle Recoome together.

He forgot about Guldo.

The moment he got hold of the red alien, he once again was unable to move. Jeice wrenched free, and took the opportunity to hit his opponent in the face.

Tien had taken advantage of the few moments Recoome was stunned to firmly plant his fist into the latter's abdomen. The armour cracked, but it was not enough. The alien grabbed the three eyed warier and was about to deal a head but when a foot hit the side of his face. Another, smaller foot hit the inside of the elbow, making the arms bend and reducing the grip. Tien tore himself free, and the three humans distanced themselves from the heavy brute.

Behind them, Chiaotzu was locked in a psychic battle with Guldo. He grabbed hold of him with his telekinesis, but Four Eyes sucked in his breath, and disappeared in thin air.

Just after he received the first hit, the hold on Goku disappeared. His opponent struck with a fast right blow. The Saiyan ducked underneath, and set his left knee in the stomach of the advancing Jeice. The latter doubled over, and Goku took this time to deal a left elbow to the neck, sending the red warier in the water.

Chiaotzu found the other again, and once more grasped him in a psychic hold. Again, the alien drew breath, but a beam pierced the armour before either could react.

"Sorry we're late; I hope we didn't miss the party." Nappa smirked, still holding out his finger.

"Raditz, Nappa." Goku sounded happy. Below them, Jeice re-emerged, mad as a swarm. Nappa didn't waste time to drop on his new opponent, but Jeice saw him coming, and simply kicked him aside. He met Goku once again, and the two were locked in combat once more.

Raditz took a second to survey his surroundings. The white little thing was still blinking in surprise. The three natives were holding up against Recoome, despite only possessing a quarter of the power each. And Vegeta was locked with Ginyu, both of them shooting blasts at each other in an insane pace.

* * *

"Kill the others. This one is mine." Ginyu flew up as well, locking eyes with Vegeta.

"Feeling confident, are we?" Vegeta remarked.

"I already killed one of your friends, and the rest of them will soon follow." Ginyu declared.

"As if I care about any of them." Vegeta decided the game was up, and he had to use his full power just to survive the oncoming battle, let alone win.

And thus he did, instantaneously hitting his maximum. Once again he felt he should be able to go higher, but just couldn't.

Ginyu was taken by surprise when Vegeta unleashed his full power. For an instant, his scouter recorded seventy eight thousand, then exploding violently.

"Now you're blind as well." Vegeta claimed.

"Not quite." Ginyu claimed, as he calmly placed a replacement scouter to his face. The one Guldo took earlier from Vegeta.

With a roar of anger, Vegeta threw himself on his opponent. Ginyu had seen it coming, and caught both of his hands. For a moment, the two pushed each other in midair, until Ginyu delivered a head butt to the Prince. Vegeta flew back to gain a little distance. Ginyu wouldn't let him, and charged after him. The Saiyan stopped, and threw a weak blast into his opponents face. It wasn't meant to hurt, only disorient. And it did, as Ginyu kept charging blindly. But Vegeta held out his hand, and, just as Mr. Popo did to Goku so many years ago, made Ginyu fly into his fist.

Ginyu was recoiled backwards, and Vegeta took this chance to strike. He lowered himself slightly, and set his left hand in the exposed abdomen.

Ginyu doubled over, but only for a second, as he hit Vegeta with his elbow, sending the warier below. He charged after him with the intend to hit again.

Vegeta sensed him coming, and spun around left around his axis. He caught Ginyu's right outstretched fist, and kept spinning, throwing the other away sideways. He send a few blasts after him for good measure.

Ginyu dodged the blasts, turned upright, and answered the fire with a few of his own. Vegeta took the challenge, and soon the two were shooting blasts all over the place like a pair of loose machine guns.

He found himself wasting his remaining energy fast, while not getting results. So instead of answering the blasts fired at him, he simply started dodging them, while focusing his energy in the palm of his hand.

When Ginyu noticed his opponent was no longer shooting back, he stopped as well, since Vegeta was dodging everything anyway. A few bleeps in his left ear told him his opponent's power was rising sharply.

Vegeta grinned cockily. During his time on earth, he had upgraded his signature move to match the Kamehameha somewhat.

"GALLIC GUN!" he released the beam on his surprised opponent. The attack hit Ginyu dead centre. He was hurled away for several hundred meters, before coming to a halt.

"Not good enough." Ginyu grunted.

"There is more where that came from." Vegeta said back. He fired a fast beam, narrowly missing the purple man. He was about to fire a follow up attack, when he noticed a bright light from above and to his left. His eyes set on a familiar white orb.

"NO! THAT FOOL!"

* * *

Raditz and Nappa were watching Goku from the sidelines. They believed the Earthling Saiyan had needed help, but he proved he could easily handle Jeice. The three humans were just on par with Recoome, using their numbers to tire the brute out.

"There are four of us now; we could easily take out Captain Ginyu." Nappa tried to persuade his comrade.

"No, Kakarot has proven himself stronger than both of us. And Vegeta would rather die then get help from us." The other denied him. "Besides, Ginyu doesn't know we are here, and I like it that way."

"Bloody coward. If I hadn't seen you transform myself, I would think you were pretending to be of Saiyan blood." Nappa tried to vent some of his frustrations. This was supposed to be a planet of weaklings, but instead there are at least three locals as strong as him. He had measured their powers while they were fighting Recoome. And the low class Kakarot was stronger by a good margin.

"On second thoughts." Raditz watched Vegeta fire his Gallic Gun. After all these years, he still recognized the beam instantly. Yet Ginyu seemed to shrug it off. And Kakarot was not winning fast enough to his taste as well.

He had already started gathering energy in his palm. Now he threw it up, expanding it in the higher atmosphere.

* * *

It let out another ear-splitting roar. Then it fired its breath, a powerful beam that split the water. It didn't hit anything, as everyone wisely kept a distance.

Its three kinsmen were still up in the sky. Unlike the one below, they were self aware, and could remain flying while transformed.

Jeice was stunned by the massive monster below. It looked rather silly, peddling in the water, but the beam from the mouth was so intense, he could almost feel it.

Then a massive gloved hand closed around him. He put up his defences just in time not to be crushed. His attacker noticed and, instead of trying a differed attack, threw him down, straight towards the ape below.

The other armoured ape flew up, towards Ginyu. He was strong enough to harm him, and he had every intension of doing so. But an uncovered fist collided with him before he could reach. Ginyu took the time to speed away.

"Do you even realize what you have done?" the heavy voice boomed over the water. The armoured ape didn't reply. There was only one among the four who actually had enough self control for speech.

Unlike the one below, this one was still sporting a massive pair of shorts. Vegeta brought a pair of white boots and gloves, as well as a set of blue spandex, but it was mere imitation, and the transformation ripped nearly everything clean off.

He didn't wait for an answer anyway, as he advanced at the captain.

Another roar reached their ears, coming from below, as well as a terrified scream.

The Vegeta-ape fired his beam. It was a massive attack, but to slow for the seasoned warier. Ginyu dodged it, but in that time, the ape had crossed the distance, and grabbed him in a fist.

"This is the end for you." It boomed at him.

"NOT YET!" Ginyu screamed out as his body was slowly being crushed.

"Change NOW!" a golden beam shot from his mouth, and connected with that of the ape. For a few seconds, a blinding light washed over the battle scene, then the ape let go of the other, and both fell towards the water.

The ape landed in the water, just next to the Goku-ape. Apparently, Jeice had escaped its grasp, as he was floating some distance away. He recognized the technique his captain used, and came closer to the apes.

Both of them were paddling in the water. For a moment it seemed they would attack each other, but they ignored each other. Simultaneously, both of them started roaring while pounding the chest.

"Captain, what's wrong." Jeice flew up to the ape he knew his captain was inside, dodging a grasp from the other on his way there.

At first, the Ginyu-ape didn't notice him, but then Jeice decided to float in front of him.

"Captain, answer me, are you ok?"

But instead of an answer, the captain's hand shot out. To fast for the red alien to react, he blinked in surprise as the massive fingers closed around him.

* * *

"What's going on here?" Tien asked no one in particular.

"Why did they transform? There is no full moon yet." Yamcha added.

Recoome was floating nearby, too stunned by the sudden turn of events to do anything.

"It's that orb." Krillin pointed up. "They transformed the moment that appeared. But I have no idea where it came from."

"It doesn't matter, it's going." Tien decided, charging a Dodon. "Goku is a bigger threat in that form then the others combined." He declared as he fired. But one of the armoured apes got in the way, and the beam shattered against its skin.

The other ape dropped from the sky, still squinting from the blow he took earlier, and made a grasp for Recoome. But a massive thing like that was hard to miss, and even Recoome had seen it coming miles away. He dodged, and charged in, punching the monster in the eye.

The Nappa-ape let out a roar, which was promptly answered by the apes below, and whipped his hand before his face, hitting Recoome by accident, and slamming him away.

The humans didn't know who these apes were, and if the two below were any indication, even knew what they were doing. They decided to prepare for the worst. Tien put his hands on either side of his face, palms facing the other group. Krillin, Yamcha and Chiaotzu knew what was coming and covered their eyes.

"SOLAR FLARE!" The blinding technique struck, leaving four apes and an alien blinded. Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu flew backwards to gain some distance and form a plan, but Krillin didn't budge. Instead, he had one arm up, his eyes dead set on Recoome. He gathered energy, spinning it and turning it into a flat disc.

"Here goes nothing." He mumbled to himself, as he made it bigger and flatter. The edge hummed slightly, and it seemed to cut the very air as it spun. He deemed it ready, and threw it towards its target.

"KIENZAN!" the slow technique was launched towards the alien.

It cannot be said Recoome was a bad fighter. Even without his eyesight, and no energy senses, he knew exactly where to find the disc by hearing alone. Eyes still shut. He jerked out with his right, and fired a blast point blank unto the edge. Had he had his sight he would have seen how the blast was split in half, and perhaps even have time to dodge the slow disc. But he didn't, and only the sharp pain in his chest told him he failed.

"Wow." Yamcha let the word drop out of his mouth.

"Why didn't you do that before?" Tien wanted to know.

"It's slow and takes time to charge." Krillin said back.

"So you used it when he was down." Someone added. The four humans had moved away to observe, but they had an extra. Purple skinned, and with many cracks in his armour, Ginyu was floating next to them.

They reacting instinctively, and attacked together. But the alien was still faster then they were, blocking Tien's punch with his forearm, Yamcha's low kick with his shin, and Krillin's punch with one of his own.

"It's me, Vegeta!" He spat out, pushing them away. "You don't happen to have any sensu beans on you?"

* * *

To be continued next chapter.

* * *

An alternate take on Ginyu vs Vegeta.

With a roar of anger, Vegeta threw himself on his opponent. Ginyu had seen it coming, and caught both of his hands. Then Ginyu moved one of Vegeta's fists, causing him to hit himself.

"Stop hitting yourself." He said sadistically.

And again with the other hand.

"Stop hitting yourself."

'Thwack.'

"Stop hitting yourself."

'Thwack.'

"Stop hitting yourself."

'Thwack.'

"Stop hitting yourself."

But he could not, for Ginyu was hitting him with his own hands.

…

And this people, is why I shouldn't be writing fight scenes at 2 am.

Speaking of which, how do you people like my figth scenes? I have yet to hear a single thing about them.

* * *

Special thanks to MsAnimeGeek, for being my beta.


	14. Ch 14 Invasion VI

A/N: Thank you all for your support. It always brightens my mood to read the reviews.

And now, the fight we have all been waiting for.

* * *

Ch 14 Invasion VI

* * *

"Prove it!" The words echoed with disbelief. Krillin was on his guard.

"We first met in the battle against King Piccolo." The large purple body snapped. The humans visibly relaxed.

"What happened to you? Why is that…" Yamcha started firing questions.

"I don't know. One moment I had him in my hand, the next I'm falling down and find myself stuck in… this." He gestured to himself.

"How did…" Krillin started.

"I don't know!" he was cut off. In the water below, both apes fired a beam, creating huge walls of water.

"Didn't you master your ape form?" Tien sounded sceptical.

"Yes, but it's a mental mastery. For all the use, my real body is now as useless as Kakarot. Now, about that sensu?"

"I don't think that that's a good idea. You want your own body back, I take it?" Krillin denied him. "But that guy is stronger that we are." He gestured to the purple body.

"Not like this." Vegeta countered.

"You're not dying, so you'll have to deal with it." Tien said back. "If you can get your own body back, we'll spare you one."

"How, he's a hundred feet and pissed. I don't want to get close to these two." Krillin questioned.

"What if we cut of the tails? It worked on Goku." Yamcha suggested.

"You cut Kakarot's tail off?" Vegeta narrowed his eyebrows. He never heard that tale before.

"Or maybe not." Yamcha withdrew, noting the look in Vegeta's eyes.

Behind them, the apes and the alien were recovering their eyesight.

"Take out the fake moon. I'll see if I can convince Ginyu he was better off in his own body." Vegeta suggested.

"And how will you do that?" Yamcha raised his eyebrows.

He cracked a knuckle. "The fun way."

He flew off towards the two rampaging apes.

Krillin took the honours of destroying the false moon, while Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu placed themselves a small distance from the armoured apes.

"HAAAA!" Krillin fired the Turtle School signature move, severely overestimating the power in the white orb. The blue beam cut trough it like a warm knife through butter.

At once, when it exploded, the four apes reverted to their humanoid forms. Nappa and Raditz had been wearing their Saiyan armour, which expanded with them. Goku and Ginyu were not so lucky. The moment they transformed their clothes were ripped to pieces.

"I just noticed a huge flaw in our plan." Tien said to Yamcha.

"Don't worry, I brought spare uniforms." Yamcha said back.

(No, they are not fighting naked. Pervs.)

"I meant Goku losing consciousness when he transforms back." Tien made a dive to where he sensed Goku was drifting.

He soon flew up again, having grabbed Goku by the wrist.

"Hey Goku." Yamcha slapped his face. It worked, as the earthling Saiyan woke up again.

"What happened?" he once again woke up wet.

"You transformed." Yamcha filled him in. Tien let go, as he was now flying on his own power. "I brought a few spares." Yamcha pulled out a capsule and de-capsulated it. It was a box containing several Turtle uniforms.

"Why would you do that?" Goku questioned as he, to the gratitude of the other three, put on some pants.

"I happened to see it before those weirdoes arrived." The simple answer came. "I thought it could come in handy."

"Done chitchatting?" Vegeta flew up to them, holding the Ginyu by the ankle.

"You!" Goku readied to charge in, but was held back be Tien.

"Vegeta and that purple alien changed body's" He explained. "Don't ask, we don't know either."

"Ok." Goku's serous face was replaced by his trademark smile. "So you'll be looking purple from now on?"

"Not if I can help it." The grim answer came. He noticed the teasing tone in the question, and tried his hardest not to think about it.

"Wake up!" He shook the limp body, yet failed to gain a reaction.

"Say, you don't happen to know where Gohan, Chichi and the others went?" Goku asked suddenly, noting the lack of a boat anywhere in sight.

"Underwater." Yamcha answered him. He had been keeping track of them. "Their energy is steady, so their probably in a submarine or something."

"I guess." Now that he mentioned it, Goku could sense them as well.

Something flew past them. Something bald, wearing armour and looking confused. After him the second Saiyan flew into view.

"That's Vegeta." Tien said to the two Saiyans, pointing over his shoulder. He decided to fill them in before they could do anything rash.

"What do you mean…?" Nappa opened his mouth.

"He means Ginyu took my body!" Vegeta was severely pissed, as he once again failed to bring his old body back to life. He settled for punching him in the gut. With a gasp Ginyu came back.

Vegeta didn't wait for him to recover, as a follow up punch hit the exact same spot.

"Not bad." He said to himself.

"Vegeta." Ginyu managed between two heaves. "You wouldn't kill your own body, would you?"

"I don't know." Vegeta clenched his fist as a demonstration. "This one is a lot stronger. I think I'll keep it." He was bluffing, as he knew well his power was even below that of Nappa. He just hoped Ginyu would take the bait.

"Then keep it." Ginyu straightened himself. "In fact, you can take it with you when you DIE!" He fired a regaled blast, but Vegeta batted it away.

"Make me." Another blow connected, this time in the face.

"Should we help him?" Krillin asked Yamcha.

"Nah, lets just sit back and enjoy the show of Vegeta getting his ass handed to him." Yamcha returned.

"I HEARD THAT!" Vegeta Screamed in Ginyu's voice.

"Didn't you come here on a ship?" Goku asked Raditz out of the blue.

"Is a few minutes flying away. I decided to keep it away from the fighting." Raditz answered.

"Thanks for showing up though." Yamcha tried to be friendly.

"We're Saiyans. It's what we do." Nappa said smugly. Sure, they might be as strong as him, but that doesn't mean they can beat him.

"Nice, I can see where Vegeta got his attitude from." Tien mocked him.

They watched the 'fight'. Vegeta was beating his own body without remorse. Perhaps the promise of the sensu bean allowed him to pull out all the stops. Slowly, both powers were rising, as Vegeta was getting used to Ginyu's body.

"Getting tired already?" Vegeta trashed. "That is the body of a pure-blooded Saiyan Prince you know? You should be doing better than that. Then again, you did give me a body with more power."

Ginyu wiped a bit of blood off of his mouth. He was heaving badly, and bleeding from a hundred wounds.

"Let's fix that." He said to everyone's surprise.

"CHANGE NOW!" Before anyone could react, Ginyu launched his body changing technique. Except he didn't aim it at Vegeta.

When he opened his eyes, Goku didn't see the sight he was expecting. He saw himself, grinning for a second, then attack Tien, who happened to be the closest, by punching him in the face. The force of the blow threw Tien off, into Krillin.

Goku's body gathered some energy, when a blast connected to his back. He was blown into the water, only to come out immediately. He launched his fist at his attacker, only to have it caught.

The face of Vegeta scowled at him as he felt his knuckles being gripped. Seeing an opening, Ginyu struck a left hook, hitting the other against the face. But it didn't budge.

"Looks like you miscalculated." His own body mocked Ginyu.

"So Goku is in Vegeta's body now?" Yamcha asked amused. "This just got interesting."

"Very amusing." Tien remarked, rubbing his face.

"HOW!" Ginyu cried out.

"You put a Saiyan in a Saiyan body, what did you expect?" Vegeta taunted him some more. "Looks like this time, one of you didn't lose that much power. And it wasn't you."

Ginyu gritted his teeth as he tried to loosen the grip on his fist. But the power between them was simply too great. It was only duo to Goku's self control that prevented him from crushing his own hand.

"Here is what you're going to do." Vegeta grabbed Ginyu by the throat. "First you will change bodies with Kakarot again, and then you will be taking back your own worthless body. And I promise not to kill you… slowly." Though fear was clearly visibly in the eyes, Ginyu didn't give in.

"Isn't he stronger than we are?" Goku asked. Ginyu didn't see because his eyes were set on the face of his own body, but Vegeta noticed the uncharacteristic yet so familiar smile on the face.

"I mean, he could probably kick both our asses combined if he had his own body." Goku added.

"Don't go giving him ideas." Vegeta said back, understanding what Goku was doing.

"Fine…" Ginyu squeezed out. Vegeta positioned himself behind him, making sure he could not screw them over again. But the invader had no intension of doing so.

"CHANGE NOW!" The golden beam connected with Goku's mouth. Then the head of Vegeta's body whipped up, locking eyes with Ginyu's body. Again he used the technique, this time switching himself and Vegeta into their own respective bodies.

All three of the floated for a second, processing what happened, when Ginyu shot up. He engulfed himself in purple aura, and fired it into the sky, where it exploded like fireworks.

"See how you handle this." Ginyu gloated. Vegeta growled as both Saiyans shot up again. Goku led, charging straight at Ginyu, and hiding Vegeta behind him. Ginyu saw the right punch coming, moved left slightly, and struck out with a right of his own as a counter. But instead of dodging, Goku grabbed the fist with his left, and pulled it down slightly. Vegeta came over his back, and narrowly missing Goku's head, connected a right punch into Ginyu's face. The alien was blown lose from Goku's grasp.

But they forgot about the attack Ginyu released earlier. It was some kind of scatter shot. As each bolt had relatively little power in it, there were hundreds of them. Everyone raised their defences, just in time for the shower of blasts to come down on them.

Goku and Vegeta weren't hit at all; they were not even targeted, as the technique was aimed at the ones below them.

They felt Ginyu's energy approaching again, and each fired a blast at him, causing the alien to back down.

"Back off Kakarot, I can handle this." The prince said as they still floated back to back.

"Get yourself a sensu first, you got pretty roughed up." Goku said back. "You can't win when like that."

"Mind your own business." Vegeta raised his power again, and to his satisfaction, it was even higher than before.

Goku threw his hands in the air as if throwing something away, while Vegeta charged head on once more.

He started off with a right fist, which was promptly kicked away. Ginyu fired a blast in response, but it was batted away just as easily. The two warriors remained unmoving in the air, eyes locked, for just a second, before the Saiyan Prince broke the deadlock charging up his signature attack.

"GALLIC GUN!" The powerful beam nearly hit its mark. The only reason Ginyu could dodge was because his scouter gave him a heads up.

"A hundred and forty, no way I can block that." He muttered to himself.

"What's the matter, not as strong as you thought you were?" Vegeta spat to the ground. "I should have attacked you from the very beginning."

No answer. Ginyu simply opted for a fury of blasts. Vegeta dodged a few, then started firing his own back. Once more they were shooting at each other, but while Ginyu gave everything he had, Vegeta simply put in just enough energy to blow up the blasts of his opponent.

Ginyu didn't realize, and released one wave of blasts after the other.

It was only when Vegeta stopped shooting back, and dodged them again that he stopped firing, and decided to finish this up close and personal.

His left was blocked, and his right kick swooped over Vegeta's head. Vegeta didn't hold back either, when his opponent attacked with a right, he answered with his own. The two punches missed each other, as Ginyu's went over Vegeta's, he hit the shorter man in the face, while the prince hit the other against the shoulder just before that, robbing the attack of most of its power, but didn't do damage either.

Then Ginyu spun round, leashing out with a left, which his opponent dodged by going back further, then spun further and attacked with a right backhand. Both missed, and Ginyu followed up with another left high kick, this one had more reach, and hit the retreating Vegeta, knocking him out of the sky.

Goku watched as the other Saiyan was kicked into the water below. He could sense Vegeta's energy. And as it didn't drop in the slightest, he knew this battle wasn't over yet. But Ginyu had the raw strength advantage, and he used it well.

Vegeta came up again, firing a thin beam at Ginyu. The beam narrowly missed, going through one of the shoulder plates instead. Ginyu fired back, and missed once more.

He took a moment to calculate Vegeta's power once again. 'He is awfully annoying for someone with only eighty five thousand.' He thought to himself. 'Yet just now he nearly doubled it. Is he holding back? Or has he found a way to surpass his limits?'

His questions were forgotten again, as the two were locked in aerial melee once more.

* * *

"Should we help them?" Krillin asked.

"Do you want to be caught between that?" Yamcha answered, just as the two high in the air locked punches again.

"There has to be something we can do." Krillin said back, feeling frustrated.

"I agree." Raditz added, to everyone's surprise. "I'm not standing by watching while my fate is decided overhead."

"You have something in mind?" Nappa asked him.

"Wherever did Zarbon go? I haven't seen him since he went ahead." Raditz looked around, perhaps expecting the other to be here suddenly.

"You mean the one who came just before we did?" Tien asked him. "Ginyu got to him before anyone else. I'm sorry, but his energy signal is gone."

"What do you mean his energy signal is gone?" Nappa didn't understand what the human meant. After all, he never even heard of the ability to sense energy.

"He means Zarbon dropped off the scouter." Raditz clarified. He was starting to get a wild guess of the ability.

"He's gone?" Nappa gasped. True, they hated each other's guts before this, and it was mostly Raditz who interacted with the green alien. Yet Zarbon was one of them, their group of runaways. They spend several years together on a small ship. Despite their little interaction, the two still knew each other well.

Raditz simply nodded.

"He'll be back." Yamcha said to them. "Don't worry, everyone who died today will be revived."

"Revive?" Raditz was taken aback.

"Yamcha, maybe we shouldn't tell them." Krillin tried to hold him back.

"It's not like they are going to steal them from under our noses." Yamcha argued. "Besides, we are as strong as…" He gestured to Nappa. "I don't think we caught your name."

"Nappa." Raditz answered him. He was curious about whatever they were arguing about.

"Napper." Yamcha continued. "There are four of us, and only two of them, so even if they did, we can hold them off."

"Its not a good idea to discuss battle plans with the enemy in earshot." Raditz remarked at him, with a slight hint of amusement. The man was right of course, if it came to blows, the natives were most likely to win. Without transformations at least.

"But you said something about reviving people." He returned to the pint. "Do you have to power to reawaken the dead?"

"No, Shenron does." Yamcha answered. The other three shrugged, but let him talk. "Shenron has the power to grand a single wish."

"A wish? As in 'I was he was alive again.' kind of thing?" Raditz dindt know what to think.

"Basically." Yamcha shrugged "It's not just the deaths; we can also repair whatever damage had been done."

"Like our ship?" Raditz asked hopefully.

"I guess, is it broken?" Yamcha asked back.

"Vegeta blew a hole in it." The Saiyan replied.

"Yea, he does that." Yamcha added.

"How do you get along anyway?" Nappa asked out of the blue.

"That's a big word." Yamcha laughed.

Another few shockwaves trembled the sky.

"Maybe this is not the time." Tien cut them short. "If you promise not to get in our way, well include your friends and your ship in the wish. Deal?"

Raditz and Nappa made a short glance at each other. "Deal." The long haired Saiyan said.

* * *

Punch, block, kick, block, dodge, dodge, punch. Oh, he was in his element now. He had not had a fight this intense since before he came to this planet. This was a battle. This was how battle is supposed to be. Two men pulling out all the stops to kill the other.

And yet, there was a voice in the back of his head, telling him to back down. At first it was small, and easily repressed, but now it plagued his mind. He was already damaged before he even started, not to mention his opponent starting off with far more power than he did.

Though both had to take their share of hits, his opponent seemed hardly effected by it, while he noticed every punch scraping away at him, every hit did a little bit more damage. But he could feel his power rising with every blow. Power he was locked out of earlier was starting to become accessible. Slowly, but steadily he was closing the gap. With every hit taken, he didn't weaken, he became stronger.

But he knew it wouldn't help him in time, as Ginyu was already doing more damage then his rise in power could compensate.

A fast blow to the head took him by surprise. In the split second he was disoriented, Ginyu grabbed his foot and threw him into the water below.

Vegeta was still falling when Goku soared up. He would not let the purple man have a moments rest.

His charge was met by a punch, but Goku saw it coming and deftly swung himself over it, making a grab for the scouter in the process. Ginyu jerked his head away at the last moment, and drew back his arm for another attack.

Goku pointed a finger.

"Dodon." The beam missed the large man, but the Saiyan had not expected to hit him with that. Instead, it was a good distraction. He only needed a moment to charge it up.

He concentrated his energy into his fist, making it glow blue. It was something new he had come up with only a few days ago, so the technique was nowhere near complete. Yet he decided to test it out anyway.

Ginyu turned just as the charged fist came in contact with him. It hit him squarely in the chest so hard it send shards of his armour flying. But the armour had taken the brunt of the impact, and he got of with only a small burn and a bit of bruising.

Ginyu launched a large wave of energy in his anger, but Goku knew it was coming before the energy even left his body. Like so many years ago against King Piccolo, he could easily read his opponent. And this time, the gap in their powers was much smaller.

He ducked beneath the wave, and flew back, gathering energy in his palms. Ginyu took after him, so he didn't have time to launch a big one.

Quickly he charged up a Kamehameha, right until his opponent was just before him. Then, when Ginyu was close enough to reach him, he fired. It hit exactly the same spot as his punch did, but this time, it had more force behind it. Thanks to him aiming slightly down, Ginyu was pushed away by the beam, towards the water.

"Gallic GUN!"

Vegeta had recovered by then, and shot the descending Ginyu in the back. This time, Ginyu's armour didn't protect him. The beam hit him, and he found himself stuck between two large energy waves, both of which were still fuelled by their owners.

To the unobservant eye, it looked like Goku and Vegeta were pushing against each other, their beams colliding in the air creating a large ball of pure energy. But they tried to squash something between them.

Tried, and failed.

With a roar of anger, Ginyu released himself from between the two. He was bleeding from both the chest and back, but his power remained as high as ever. He shot below, into the water in an attempt to cool the heavy burns he received.

"Well Vegeta, it was worth a try." Goku made some small talk.

"How about next time, you put a little more backbone into it." Vegeta suggested.

"Hey, I didnt have any time to prepare." Goku defended himself.

"Do you think I followed a plan of any kind? I only had the time between you firing and him reaching me to do something." Vegeta argued.

"Ok, so it failed. But it is bound to have done some damage." Goku suggested hopefully. He whipped the sweat off of his forehead. The intense fighting was starting to take its toll.

Cue to his words, Ginyu came up again, and charged straight at them.

Then, in a flash in inspiration, Vegeta formed a battle plan.

"Kakarot, listen up." With only a few words, Vegeta told him what to do.

"Twenty seconds is all I need." The latter answered him.

Ginyu almost reached them, and with a single movement, both Saiyans threw a weak blast, meant to create a smokescreen. Ginyu called their bluff, and flew into them. He was only blinded for a split second, when he saw one of them. Goku was charging him as well.

Ginyu struck out with a fast right punch, hoping his longer arms would disable Goku from attacking. But the Earthling Saiyan was much faster. He dodged by grabbing the fist and pushing himself up. Vegeta popped out from behind him, crossed the distance before his target could even blink, and landed a heavy blow in Ginyu's face.

He was blown back once more, and Vegeta sent a blast after him, gathering energy in his other hand. Ginyu batted the blast away, and fired a few of his own.

Goku, meanwhile, floated a little above the two, gathering energy. He was careful not to let his power spike, as this would give him away.

Vegeta dodged, and lured the Captain towards himself. In the last moment, he threw another weak blast, and used its smoke to dodge Ginyu. He flew in the exact opposite direction Ginyu was going now, and forced the powerhouse to change directions. To his credit, Ginyu caught on immediately, and turned on the spot.

Vegeta felt Goku's power make a small spark. He held out his left hand, in which he had been gathering energy, and fired the technique.

"BIG BANG!"

Ginyu dodged it, but it exploded with a huge blast right behind him, propelling him forwards and upwards. Right at the other Saiyan.

"HAAAAAAAAA!" Goku fire on the approaching Ginyu. The alien only had the split second of his scouter exploding to warn him of the incoming blast, he had just enough time to throw up his arms before it hit him, blasting him straight through Vegeta's blast again.

When the light subsided, the first thing Vegeta noticed was Goku's power dropping alarmingly fast. The forced transformation earlier had taken a massive toll on both of them, and they could feel it. Vegeta was panting hard himself, and Goku, floating just behind him now, was doing even worse.

"We got him… right." He managed between three breaths.

Vegeta nodded, as both of them noticed Ginyu's energy. It had dropped massively, as it was even lower than that of Nappa now.

They floated for a little time, regaining their breath.

Below them Ginyu broke out of the water, gasping for air. Both his arms were sticking out at odd angles. No longer trying to fight, he started making his way away from the two.

"As if I would just let you leave." He spat out, gathering energy for another Big Bang. He paused when he felt a hand grabbing his left shoulder.

"Don't try and stop me, Kakarot." He spat, but didn't try to free himself.

"It's over Vegeta. Let it go." Goku's calm voice sounded.

"He's still alive." Vegeta argued.

"And he will live with the shame of being defeated by us." Goku replied.

"What if he goes back to Frieza?" Vegeta suddenly realized.

"If he is that stupid, he would probably get killed." Goku answered calmly.

Vegeta didn't answer, but retracted his energy instead.

They watched how Ginyu fly away, and disappear behind the horizon. His energy signature paused for a few moments, somewhere near Kame House. Then it went up, along with all that of all other invaders. High into the sky, until it was to far away to be followed.

"It's over." Vegeta confirmed.

* * *

The end of this part.

* * *

Foot Notes:

And that concludes the invasion. I hope it lived up to expectations. I loved writing it, especially the Goku-Vegeta tag team battle.

I don't know when I'll upload the next part. As it turns out there is a little huge plot hole, which boils down to an OC conveniently dropping in and fixing everything.

Special thanks to MsAnimeGeek.


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